Bloodstream
by LivingTorch
Summary: In a Highschool AU, Finn's parents are killed in a car crash. After this loss the young teenager goes into a deep state of depression, causing his grades to drop and his friends to leave. But when Finn is offered a chance to start over by his step brother, Jake, can he break through his wall of sadness and find a new life at Ooo high? Or will Finn's past cause him to lose all hope?
1. Prologue

Bloodstream

* * *

Prologue

I was at home when it happened.

It was an ordinary day, the sun was out and kids were playing in the street. I had arrived home from school, unpacked my things and started my homework, just like I did every afternoon.

I remember every detail of that afternoon like I knew the back of my hand, I had taken a break from my work, algebra- we were studying quadratics at the time. I had walked up to the fridge and grabbed a bag of crisps; plain and salted, just as I liked them.

I remember staring at the clock and seeing the time crawl to five-forty five. That was the moment when I first started worrying, you see, my parents worked in insurance, they always got home at five-thirty, no earlier, no later. Mum would usually be carrying groceries in her arms while dad drived.

Eventually the clock crawled past six… and then six-thirty, and then seven. It was seven-eighteen exactly when the phone rang.

"Is this the Murton residence?" The officer had asked solemnly.

"Y-yes." I had replied, voice quivering with a fear of the unknown.

I could almost feel the officer catch his breath, I could almost feel tears welling up in his eyes as he knew what he had to do next.

"Finn… your parents… they were in a car crash, it's not looking good, I don't think they will make it."

I had dropped the phone, letting it dangle by its cord. I didn't cry, not then, I don't think I had quite realised the seriousness of the situation, it hadn't quite sunk in that I would never see my parents again.

Minutes later I was picked up in a Police car and driven to the local hospital. I didn't say a word for the entire ride, the officer in the car didn't even try to start a conversation, I think he knew that I would rather be left to think over what had just occurred.

We arrived at the hospital and I was led to a room by one of the nurses, it was then that I was informed that my mother had near-fatal wounds and that she had been put on life support to allow her to breathe.

Dad… Dad was dead, his spine severed, his nervous system damaged beyond repair.

The officer dropped me back at my place. I entered the house and went straight up to my room, I stared at the photos of my parents and I, all smiling, all happy. One of us at the zoo, another at an amusement park and another of Dad teaching me to ride a bike…

There were going to be no more photos with them, no more memories, I was never going to feel the touch of their embrace ever again, I was never going smell Dad's strong cologne or taste Mum's amazing cooking. I would never hear them say they love me ever again. They were gone.

"Arghh!" I let out a scream of rage, lashing out at the pictures of my past and sending them crashing into the ground, shards of glass scattering across the ground.

My fists were cut and bleeding, but I didn't care, no cuts could possibly match the pain I was feeling in my heart.

* * *

I was fifteen, old enough to take care of myself, the life insurance money coupled with what my parents had managed to save would see me through to the end of the year.

I strove to try even harder at school, I took up kickboxing and poured all of my energy into perfecting my skills.

But everyday after school I would visit mum, see her lifeless body hooked up to the machines that kept her breathing. Everyday I would bring her flowers, praying to Glob that she would wake up, that she could come home.

But she never did. A month after the crash I walked into her ward only to be stopped by a Doctor.

"Kid…" He had said, his voice wavering. "She wasn't going to get better, we switch the life support off this morning."

I tried to kill myself that night, I took almost three jars of sleeping pills but just woke up in the morning with a massive headache.

I didn't see light in anything anymore, not like I used to. Kickboxing was my only escape from the real world, I could let myself go in the rigorous training, allowing myself to focus on just one objective, but it wasn't enough, I needed something for when I wasn't engrossed in sport, something that would take me away from the darkness of reality.

One of the guys at my school got me hooked on heroin, at first I hated myself for doing it, but then I realised that it took the pain away. I was injecting myself with it every chance I got, letting it take me to that happy place where everything was fine, a place where I didn't have to worry about life.

My life began to fall apart, my grades fell and I started getting into fights. I was arrested on four separate occasions for illegal drug use and public displays of violence.

Unsurprisingly I failed my end of year exams, was told I would have to repeat my grade… I didn't care, it wasn't like I had any friends that would move on without me. They had all ditched me early on, didn't want to deal with my drug abuse I guess, can't say I blame them.

As my funds were about to dry up, my step-brother, Jake contacted me. He said he was in Uni now and had gotten a couple of part time job as a mailman. He said he could give me a place to stay until I graduated from college.

I agreed instantly. I needed to get away from this town, this school, this house. It all brought back to many memories of my destroyed life. A fresh start is what I needed, a new beginning. I could bring my life back around where no one knew of my troubled past, I could get back to focusing on my studies, no one would need to know that I was repeating the year, it would be a perfect opportunity to make friends who didn't know about my addiction.

And there I was, the night before I start the next chapter of my life at Ooo High. Lying awake in my small bed in Jake's apartment, looking back at all the mistakes I had made in the past year, but more importantly, looking ahead at what would become of my future.

* * *

 **Hey all, LivingTorch here with my first attempt at a high school AU fanfiction. Yeah, I know it's a bit on the darker side at the moment but it'll get much more lively and romantic as the story goes on. Anywho, I'll definitely be setting Finn up with a certain someone in the fic that you'll probably guess in the first few chapters, but hey, at least it's a surprise for now.**

 **If you have some criticism of my fic so far, or at any point along the road, please leave me a review telling me what I can improve on, that would be very much appreciated.**

 **Thanks for reading! ~LivingTorch**


	2. The Princess and the Vampire

Bloodstream

Chapter One: The Princess and the Vampire

 _Bzzt Bzzt Bzzt Bzzt_ _ **Thump**_

I struck the alarm clock with a well aimed fist, immediately silencing it. I gave a yawn as I pulled myself out of bed. The clock read six-thirty, I still had a bit of time on my hands, school didn't start for another two hours and the walk would only take around fifteen minutes… assuming I didn't get lost of course.

I pulled a plain blue T-shirt over my head, straightening out the creases before putting on a pair of faded jeans. I then reached under my pillow, withdrawing my beanie.

The old thing was the last memory I had of my parents, it was given to me by my Dad when he returned from an overseas trip. I was just five at the time and the bear-like hat pretty much covered my entire head, I loved it anyway and to do this day I wear it all the time.

But no, I couldn't think about my past, I needed to move on and push forward into the new year. Depression was not going to get the best of me this time.

I trudged out of my room to see Jake, cooking up some strange looking pancakes.

"What are those?" I asked him, noticing that they smelled incredible.

"Oh, morning dude!" Jake replied, noticing that I had excited my room. "They're bacon pancakes, they always calmed me down when I was a kid and I figured with this being your first day of school and all…"

"Thanks dude." I said, taking a plate of the strange new food.

"Don't mention it." Jake said, smiling as I dug into the pancakes.

Jake eventually joined me at the table, also enjoying the food he had made, he was a shortish guy, about half a foot below me. For some odd reason he had decided to dye his hair yellow, in fact he seemed to be obsessed with the colour, his Jacket and even shoes were also yellow. Even his green eyes had a yellowish tint to them.

Jake suddenly stopped chewing his pancakes and adopted a rather solemn tone, "Finn, I know you've been through a lot over the last year and-"

"I'm fine." I cut in, not wanting to remind myself about the incident.

"Look man," Jake continued, "I just want you to know that if you ever feel like crap, you can talk to me. Alright?"

"Alright." I said, not really meaning it. I never intended to discuss my past with anyone, I didn't want people feeling sorry for me and giving me leeway just because of my past. I wanted to make my way in the world just like everyone else did.

I finished the pancakes and headed towards the door, my bag lying against its base, packed and ready by me from the night before, I wanted to make sure I was organised on the first day, I needed to start strong if I wanted to get through this year.

"Hey Finn." Jake called out to me, "I can give you a ride if you want, I don't have to be at the uni for a few more hours."

"Nah I'll be fine." I replied, not wanting to waste my step-brother's time, he was already doing so much for me by taking me in and paying for my food, I didn't want to make him do any more than that.

* * *

I trudged along the beaten sidewalk to school, I took my time, trying to remember the directions Jake had given me. _Left-Right-Right-Left Then just keep going straight from there._

I also tried to memorize some of the street names, they seemed a lot weirder than what I was used to back at my old place. There were things like Night 'o' Sphere street and Candy lane, Jake apparently lived on a street called Kingdom of Grass road. My personal favourite was Lemon crescent.

As the school came into view I was suddenly knocked off my feet from behind.

"Ow." I said plainly, rubbing my back and turning round to see what had collided with me.

"I am so very sorry!" A pink-haired girl exclaimed, picking up what seemed to be the pieces of some strange skateboard. "I was testing an electric skateboard and… well… I'm not very good at anything sport related to say the least and… I kinda bumped into you."

"You made that?" I asked in awe, despite her clear lack of coordination, "You must be some kind of science genius!"

The girl gave a laugh before extending a hand out to me, "Bonnibel Bubblegum." She said firmly, "But you can just call me Bonnie."

"Finn Mertons." I replied, shaking her hand.

"You're new here, aren't you Finn?" Bonnie asked.

"Yeah, I arrived in Ooo about a week ago, it seems like a pretty cool place." I said, smiling.

"It's not that great." She said, "It's a nice enough town, but you should steer clear of that 'Night 'o' Sphere' street, nothing good ever happens there."

After short moment of silence we arrived at the school, Bonnie turned to face me a smile on her face, "I gotta go to the science lab and try and fix my skateboard, but you should hang out with me at lunch, you'll find me in the cafeteria."

I gave a smile back, "Yeah that'd be great!"

I watched as Bonnie walked off towards the science lab, her long pink hair swaying as she walked. Had I made a friend already? Maybe I would get the strong start to the year that I wanted and maybe… just maybe, I would get my life back on track.

* * *

I continued to wonder the school, trying to find my way around and take in as much as I could, it didn't seem like too daunting of a task to make my way through, it was definitely smaller than my previous school.

 _We turned off the life support this morning._

A shiver went down my spine and I struggled to keep tears from flowing down my face at the memory. They were gone- gone forever- never coming b-

"No!" I yelled out loud, "Forget about that! Forget about the past, focus on now!"

With my self pep-talk I managed to control the wave of sadness, but it hadn't subsided wholly, I could still feel the pit of depression clinging to the bottom of my heart.

 _Bum ba dum dum bum ba da dum_

What was that? It sounds… enchanting almost, like I could just forget about everything and listen.

I followed the sound, hearing it get louder and louder as I neared it, eventually I reached a small courtyard, a girl with long raven-black hair was strumming on a blood-red bass guitar.

I watched the girl play, her fingers danced along the neck of the guitar, moving with the ease of a professional, whoever this girl was, she was insanely talented. I continued to listen, mesmerized by the low notes, suddenly the bassist opened her mouth and started to sing,

" _Daddy… why did you eat my fries, I bought them… and they were mine. But you ate them… yeah you ate my fries and I cried… but you didn't see me cry."_

Suddenly the music stopped playing, I flashed my eyes up to the spot where the girl had been sitting and saw that she had disappeared. My eyes quickly scanned the courtyard until suddenly I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head.

"Oof" Was all I could get out before being knocked to the ground by the impact.

"Why were you spying on me, stalker!?" She asked, fury blazing in her piercing eyes.

"I-I wasn't spying!" I protested, attempting to get back up, only to have the girl's foot planted on the middle of my chest, preventing movement. "And I'm not a stalker! I just thought your music sounded really good so I stopped and listened for a bit!"

Suddenly the girl removed her foot from my chest and started cracking up with laughter.

"Am I… missing something?" I asked, confused as I stood back up.

"The look on your face!" The girl continued to laugh hysterically, "Priceless!"

Alright, normally I wouldn't hit a girl, but this one looked like she could take it and besides… she was rather annoying. I threw a punch towards her shoulder, intending it to just be a playful punch, showing her that I could stand my ground.

But to my surprise the girl effortlessly dodged, keeping up the hysterical laughter the whole way through. Suddenly I felt myself in a headlock, unable to do anything but flail my arms.

"You're hilarious." She said, a grin spread wide across her face. Suddenly her smile faded "Now piss off and never come back."

Suddenly I remembered a technique my kickboxing instructor had taught me back at my old school, it wasn't necessarily useful in kickboxing, but it definitely came in handy in times like these.

I gripped both her arms with my hands and pulled forward as hard as possible, sending the raven-haired girl flying over my shoulder. As she hit the ground I could swear she almost looked shocked that someone had actually managed to catch her off guard, but that look of shock quickly changed into one of anger. She was going to kill me right then.

"Hey!" Someone shouted from across the courtyard, "Break it up!"

An incredibly tall man in a green jumpsuit ran across the courtyard, his long white hair billowed around him as he ran.

The girl stood up and faced the oncoming teacher, "Coach Billy, how've you been? Haven't seen you since last year!" She said sweetly.

"Cut the act Marceline." Billy said gruffly, "You know the rules, no fights on school property."

So that was her name… Marceline. The elegant name seemed to suit the bass guitarist, however it also showed her dangerous side.

"Alright you two, I'll be giving you both after school detentions." The coach said.

"What? No fair!" Marceline pouted.

I was suddenly hit with a feeling of guilt, I had started that fight, not her and now we were both going to get in trouble for it.

"Uh… coach?" I said hesitantly, "This was my fault, I threw the first punch."

Billy looked me up and down, seeming to realise something, "You're that new kid aren't you?" He said, "Yeah, Finn Mertons, I've heard a lot about you." Billy paused for a second, thinking the situation over in his head. "Alright you guys are off the hook just this once."

I didn't know wether to be relieved that I wasn't going to be punished for starting a fight on my first day, or mad that Billy had given me a free pass just because of my past. I should've know that the teachers would have been warned about me… I wasn't exactly a star child last year.

As Marceline and I turned to leave, Billy spoke up again, "But Finn."

"Yeah?" I replied, worried that he might change his mind.

"Come see me at the gym this lunch."

"Oh, uh, sure."

* * *

Marceline and I walked side by side from the courtyard, it was getting close to eight-thirty and classes would be starting soon. I checked the timetable I had received the day before and saw that it read History as my first class.

"So you're the new kid huh?" Marceline asked. "The school sent out a notice about you."

"What!" I exclaimed, "What did it say!"

"Basically to be careful with what we say around you due to you losing your parents last year." Marceline replied.

"You're kidding…" I sighed. Well there goes my chance at a fresh start where nobody knows who I am. Hopefully they didn't tell them about the Heroin.

 _The Heroin… It was so good… it made everything go away… the pain, the memories, everything…_

"Hey!" Marceline shouted. "You were drifting off there kiddo."

I quickly shook the thoughts from my head, "Oh, uh, yeah, I was just lost in thought is all."

"Yeah…" She replied, obviously believing there was something else going on. "So what class have you got now?"

"Uh, History… with uh, Mr. Petrikov." I said.

"Woah… guess we're heading to the same place then." Marceline laughed.

"You take history?" I asked, "You don't seem like the type of person who would be interested in that stuff."

"You don't exactly seem like the history type either." She replied dryly.

"Yeah, I guess you're right about that… I just find it interesting to learn about how people got by without-" I cut myself off incredibly quickly… I had almost said that word… that thing… that wonderful, brilliant thing.

"Without what, Finn?" Marceline asked, a confused look on her face.

"Uh, without… electricity!" I said, thinking quickly in order to avoid suspicion. Marceline just gave me a strange look.

"Let's just get to class." She said, increasing her pace.

"Yeah." I agreed, matching her speed.


	3. First Calling

Bloodstream

* * *

Chapter Two: First Calling

History went by fairly quickly, the teacher, Simon Petrikov was a bit on the crazy side of the spectrum but he was nice enough and seemed to know what he was talking about, and that's all you really need in a teacher, right?

Marceline and I sat together but didn't really talk all that much until I we were just leaving the class,

"Hey Finn, we should hang out after school today." She said in a way that didn't seem like I had a choice in the matter.

"Okay cool." I agreed, "Meet by the school gates?"

"Sure."

I don't know what it was about Marceline, but she seemed like she understood what it was like to go through something like I had, she seemed to know what subjects to avoid when she was talking to me and never really felt awkward when I was with her, like it was natural or something like that.

I arrived at my next class, science, as soon as I walked in I noticed a short, blue haired boy sitting in a corner by himself, he seemed to be avoiding everyone and when he noticed me staring at him he seemed to try and sink back into his seat to avoid my gaze.

I walked to the seat next to the shy boy, thinking that I wouldn't have to talk with him much. I gave him a simple 'hey' and sat down, taking my things out of my bag.

The science teacher, an odd looking man who seemed to have spent too much time in a tanning machine walked up to the front of the room.

"Hello class, I will be your science teacher for this year, Doctor Prismo." He said, sounding like he was bored of the introduction already, "You guys can call me Doctor P if you want." He added, absent-mindedly.

Doctor Prismo sat down at a desk and stared into space, seeming to forget that he had a class to teach at all. He suddenly stood up, his eyes suddenly lighting up.

"Alright class, find a partner." He said without any further explanation.

I looked over at the blue-haired boy from before, he seemed to be even shorter up close, probably not even five feet.

"You wanna join up with me?" I asked him.

He just gave a hasty nod and then looked back towards Doctor Prismo.

"Uh, what's your name?" I asked, trying to strike up conversation.

"Bee….." The boy began before his voice become inaudible.

"Uhm, I'm sorry, Bee-what?" I asked again.

"Beemo." He said, forcing out the word as quickly as he could.

"Hey Beemo!" I said, extending my hand towards him, "I'm Finn, I'm new around here."

Beemo took my hand without saying anything and shook it, a faint smile spreading across his face. Maybe it would just take a little time before I could start up a real conversation with him.

* * *

The next class I had was english, no one in the class really caught my eye, nothing interesting happened either. The teacher, Mrs. Trunks, just introduced herself and then started droning on about different types of sentence structures.

As I walked out of English I once again looked down at my timetable to see that I had P.E. This had always been my favourite subject, you didn't need to think that hard about anything when you were playing a sport, you just let your adrenaline carry you towards one goal, kind of like…

No. Don't think about that.

 _But you love it so much_

Stop. Thinking. About. It.

 _You miss it don't you Finn? You miss the feeling it gives you, you miss the way it can just take away the pain._

"No!" I yelled, startling a few nearby students who then gave me worried looks. My face flushed red as I sped up to jog in order to get out of the hallways and into P.E. as fast as possible.

"Alright you lot, welcome to P.E." the Coach said, "I am Coach Billy, your instructor for this year."

I looked to his left and right to see that some of the students didn't seem so pleased with the fact the Billy was taking the class. I couldn't pick out why though, he seemed to be a decent guy when I met him this morning.

"Now our first unit of work is focusing on aerobic fitness, a.k.a. Running."

The class gave a collective groan as the coach checked his clipboard, "I know, I know, it's hard and painful but we all need to get some form of exercise in order to stay fit, and I mean, who here can't run?"

The class just stared blankly at the coach's question.

"Just as I thought, now get out there and do three laps of the field, I want you back here in no more than ten minutes!"

We quickly scrambled down of the bleachers and out of the gym in a small side door that led out to the field.

The run wasn't too bad, to be honest I kinda enjoyed it. It was a simple activity and it gave me something to focus on, just putting one leg in front of the other over and over again.

Suddenly I realised no one else was in front of me, had I made a wrong turn? I gave quick glance behind me and saw the rest of the class, between ten and thirty metres away. I honestly didn't think I was that fit, I guess all the kickboxing training actually helped me.

It wasn't long before I arrived back in the gym, the first one, the coach didn't seem to be surprised though, he just looked up from his clipboard for a second and then went back to doing whatever he was before I entered the gym.

"I don't want to see anybody sitting down just yet." The Coach said as the last of the runners came through. "Everybody stand up, hands behind your head- Charlie! Good, this is a great recovery position, everybody just stand like this and breathe."

We all stood there for a moment, letting our chests rise and fall in rhythm, there was something calming about it… But it also gave my mind an opportunity to wonder, something I tried to avoid at all costs.

"Alright." Coach Billy broke the silence, "You all know how to do push ups right?"

Another groan from the entire class, well, almost the entire class. I didn't mind the exercise, I never did, it didn't matter what it was… running, push-ups, football… I didn't care, the pain of exercise would never match the pain of my past.

 _Up… Down… Up… Down… Up… Down…_

My arms pushed up and then bent low to the ground, bringing my body down with it. I would always wait until my nose was millimeters away before pushing back up.

"That's enough everyone." The Coach concluded, nodding approvingly at the students, "That was some good work today."

 _Ringinginginginging_

The school bell sounded, everybody reached for their bags, preparing to leave. I found my own bag, it was green once, but the colours faded in its age. Sliding the old thing onto my shoulders I turned to leave for lunch.

"Finn." Coach called out to me, "Forgetting something?"

Oh right, Billy had asked me to talk to him at lunch, "Sorry." I said, letting my bag slide back off my shoulders before walking back towards the Coach. "Am I in trouble?"

The coach gave a soft laugh, "No, not yet anyway." He paused for a moment, "Are you aware that our school has a Fencing team?"

"Is this what you called me here for?" I asked curiously.

"Yes." The coach replied plainly.

I stared back at Billy, wondering why he had asked my about the fencing team, surely he had been told about my love for kickboxing.

"I don't really think Fencing is my thing…" I said, trying not to offend the coach.

"I know you've invested a lot of time into kickboxing," Billy began, "And I have definitely heard of your achievements, but I just feel like- given your past- that Fencing could be a safer option."

So that's what this was about, he thought me to be some wild animal that couldn't control myself around other people…

 _Can you though?_

I looked down at the ground, feeling my emotions begin to swamp me. Not now, why did it have to be now, in front of him…

 _It could take them away, it's always there for you._

No… I couldn't just let this happen, I needed to stay in the present…

"I'd rather stick to kickboxing, thanks." I managed to get out before half-running to collect my bag and leave the gym.

* * *

To be honest I was starting to have second thoughts about heading to the cafeteria. I didn't know if it was such a great idea to interact with people just as the year was starting, maybe I should try an fit in a bit more before getting to close to anyone.

But no, to fit in I would need to make friends, and meeting up with Bonnie was going to help me with that, so after asking for directions I headed over to the cafeteria.

As I entered I scanned the room for the pink-haired girl,

"Finn!" A voice called out.

I looked over to see it belonged to Bonnie, she was sitting at a table tucked away into a small corner, beside her sat the short boy with the blue hair in my science class… Beemo, that was his name.

I walked over to the table and sat down, giving a grunt of greeting before pulling a sandwich out of my bag, Jake seemed to have stocked the thing full of bacon.

"Hey Finn!" Bonnie chimed, "This is Beemo."

"Yeah, he's in my science class." I said, noticing the boy seemed to be trying to turn invisible.

"So how do you like Ooo high so far?" Bonnie asked.

"It's alright I guess… I haven't really seen much of it so far." I replied casually.

There was a brief moment of silence as I begun to chew on my sandwich, struggling a bit to get through the layers of crispy bacon… Jake sure didn't go easy on that.

"So what were you interested in at your old school?" Bonnie asked, attempting to keep the conversation going.

I flinched at the mention of my old school, but managed to think of an answer, "I like a lot of sport… kickboxing especially."

Bonnie seemed to frown at the mention of kickboxing, "You should try fencing, I do it myself, it's really fun."

I sighed, "Yeah, Coach Billy was telling me about it, but-" The words suddenly dried up in my mouth as I saw a girl enter the room.

She was beautiful, her long red hair danced around her head like fire, drawing my gaze like moths to a flame. She suddenly looked my way, her vibrant ruby eyes flashing over mine for a split second before resting a metre or so to my right.

"Hey Bonnie, hey Beemo." She said, taking a seat next to me. I could have sworn I could feel her hair radiating heat.

"Hey Phoebe." Beemo greeted quietly, speaking for the first time since I had sat down.

"So did you sign up for fencing this year?" Bonnie asked the girl who's name was apparently Phoebe.

"Yeah, Billy put me in the advanced team!" She chimed, "I'll be training with you this year, Bonnie!" Phoebe suddenly gave a confused glance towards me, "Who's the new guy?"

"Oh, I forgot you hadn't seen him before!" Bonnie said, "This is Finn, he transferred last year, I was just asking him if he wanted to join the fencing team with us."

Phoebe was suddenly staring at me, her ruby-red eyes piercing into mine, I was lost in her gaze for a while, until I suddenly realised she wanted me to answer Bonnie's question.

"Oh… uh, yeah that'd be cool." I stuttered out. What? Why did I agree to that? I never wanted to do fencing…

"Great!" Bonnie said excitedly, "You obviously know Coach Billy, so just talk to him and he'll get you all signed up!"

Phoebe continued to stare at me, a curious smile on her face, I nervously tapped my fingers on the surface of the table, trying to think of something to say in order to break the awkward silence.

 _Ringinginginginginginging_

Saved by the bell. I quickly ended my strange staring contest with Phoebe and scooped up my bag, quickly saying my goodbyes and heading to my next class.

Oh my god she was hot. I couldn't think straight around her… Oh god I agreed to sign up for fencing because of her, I couldn't just not do it now… I'd look like a dingus.

So there I was, first day of school, already getting myself into crap… but hey, at least it was normal teenager problems.

Huh, maybe I would end up fitting in here after all.


	4. Fig Tree Melody

Bloodstream

* * *

Chapter Three: Fig Tree Melody

After finishing up my math class I headed out to the school gates where I promised I would see Marceline, I didn't see her there when I arrived, so I just leaned up against a fencepost and waited.

Soon afterward I saw Phoebe walking towards the gate, she seemed to be lost in thought, so I could easily avoid a conversation if I wanted to, but despite this the stupid part of my brain that didn't plan ahead decided to speak up anyway,

"Hey Phoebe!" I called out to her, already regretting my decision.

"Oh, hey Finn!" She replied, looking my way with those amazing ruby eyes, "Who are you waiting for?"

"Uh, Marceline." I said, noticing Phoebe seemed to adopt a look of shock when I mentioned the name "She asked me if I wanted to hang out after school, so here I am."

"You don't mean bass guitar Marceline do you?" Phoebe asked, seeming to look genuinely worried at the fact that I was going to be interacting with the Bass Guitarist.

"Is there a problem with that?" I asked, curious as to why Phoebe looked so concerned.

"No-" She began, "It's just, be careful around her." With that the ruby-eyed girl turned on her heel and walked away, her fiery hair bouncing around her shoulders as she moved.

What was that all about? Marceline didn't seem like such a bad person when I met her this morning, in fact I would even say she seemed pretty cool.

Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder, disrupting my thoughts.

"Who's the girlllllll?" Marceline asked in a teasing manner.

"What!?" I exclaimed, feeling myself flush red, "She's no one, just a person I hung out with at lunch today!"

Marceline laughed, "Don't worry dude, I was just kidding." She took a moment to control her laughter before speaking again, "You planning on signing up for kickboxing this year?"

"Actually…" I said, trying to suppress any further blushing. "I thought I might give fencing a go."

Marceline gave a smug grin, "And why would that be?"

"I-uh, just thought it would be-uh cool to try out something-uh different you know?" I stuttered, completely failing to disguise my true reasoning.

"Dude, I know that girl you were talking to does fencing, you're doing it to impress her aren't ya?" Marceline jested, giving a wink.

"No I'm no-" I stopped myself, knowing that the bassist had figured it out already, "Yeah, I am…"

"Only the first day of school and you've already got a crush!" Marceline started laughing again, she definitely laughed a lot, something I felt was going to get annoying somewhere in the near future.

"Yeah, yeah it's no big deal…" I said trying to wave it off, "So what can we do around this town anyway?"

"Hmm…" Marceline raised her hand to her chin and pondered for a moment. "Now that I think about it, there isn't really anything that exciting around here, maybe we could check out the cemetery?"

"Sounds spooky." I said sarcastically. "Let's go."

* * *

The cemetery was surprisingly large for such a small town, there were gravestones scattered throughout the area, no real order to their placement, with a large mausoleum in the centre.

"Whose family is buried there?" I asked, wondering who would have the money to pay for something like that.

"I dunno…" Marceline replied, "I've been in there a few times and I've never seen any names on the walls or anything."

"It isn't locked?" I asked, surprised that the expensive looking building would be left so unprotected.

"Nah, whoever owned this thing is long gone," Marceline explained, "I don't even think the mayor knows who they put there."

We walked towards the cold, stone building, standing in it's eerie shadow as we studied the heavy door.

"Help me open this thing." Marceline said, placing her hands up against the doors surface and beginning to push.

I positioned myself beside her, mimicking her stance and adding my strength to hers. The door eased open with a heavy grating noise, a cool blast of air hitting my face from the depths of the mausoleum. Peering inside I saw a set of stairs descending into complete darkness, this thing sure was weird.

"Well this is welcoming." I joked, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Marceline ignored my comment and started walking down into the crypt, like it was something she did every other day… maybe it was something she did every other day.

"We're going to go down there without a torch?" I asked, as brave as I liked to think I was, going down into a creepy building full of dead people with no light source was not my cup of tea.

"Come on Finn, don't wimp out on me." Marceline taunted, "I thought you would be tougher than that."

"Pfft, I'm not scared of this." I replied, trying to sound as confident as I could.

"Well come on then." Marceline said, turning back around to continue her walk into the shadows.

"Wait up!" I called after her, losing vision of her raven hair in the darkness of the mauseoleum. It was cold down there, really cold, I didn't know why that came as such a surprise to me seeing as the crypt probably hadn't seen sun for a century, but it did.

I stumbled and shivered my down the stairs until suddenly the ground evened out. Steadying myself on the rough surface, I raised my hands up around me, trying to find a wall I could use to guide myself.

"Marceline?" I called out into the inky black. I was answered back only by my own hollow echo.

"Marceline?" I tried again, only being met with the same repeating echo. She was playing some trick on me… that seemed like something she would do. Even with that thought in my mind I couldn't help but feel a pulse of fear worm its way down my spine.

I thought about turning back then, but I knew that Marceline would never let me live that down, so I pressed onwards, sticking to the rocky walls of the building.

After a short while I reached a dead end. That couldn't be right? Where the hell did Marceline go? I must have missed some side corridor. I turned around to travel back the way I came.

"Holy shit!" I screamed, falling backwards against the mauseoleum wall.

I looked up to see Marceline, torch in hand, looking like she was about to laugh her head off.

"That was brilliant!" She grinned.

"That was hardly fair!" I protested, "You told me we didn't have a torch!"

"Come on, that was hilarious!" Marceline continued to laugh, extending an arm towards me.

"Yeah, I guess it was." I said, taking her hand and pulling myself to my feet. "But I want you to know that this means war!"

"Oh my, I am so very afraid." She replied. At that we both gave out bursts of laughter. "Come on, let's get outta here."

"Alright, but don't go running off without me this time." I replied.

"I'll try not to." Marceline joked.

* * *

We left the creepy cemetery and Marceline showed me around the town. We visited the local mall, which was really just a dozen or so shops all situated on one side of the main street.

Neither of us had any money at the time, so we quickly moved on from there… Marceline seemingly wishing to avoid too much contact with other people, something that I could respect.

We then arrived at a small park, an odd statue of a man shaking his fist had been erected in the centre and many large trees were scattered about the area.

Marceline lead me to a shaded area and sat up against the trunk of an aged fig tree, removing her blood-red bass guitar from a case she had strapped to her back.

"I come here to play music." She explained plainly, "There isn't much noise around here, plus the trees look pretty cool."

"Are you going to play something now?" I asked, eager to hear the enchanting sound of her bass again.

"Why else would I have my guitar out?" She replied and started playing.

Any witty comeback to Marceline's sarcasm I had formed was instantly evaporated from my mind. It wasn't just the music that held me captive but the way she looked as she moved her fingers up and down the guitar's neck… it was like she had removed some protective barrier around her conscience.

I could swear I could feel myself floating away from reality, lost in the sound. I felt myself forgetting about everything, just hearing the base lines of her guitar. In a way, it was like being high… but so much more, there was no feeling of regret, no feeling like I was a disappointment to my parents… it just felt… pure… it just felt… right.

* * *

I peeled open a tired eye, wincing at sunlight filtering in through the fig tree above me. Had I fallen asleep? Shit. Where had Marceline gone? I slowly stood up, scanning the park, not finding her anywhere. I turned around staring at the tree I had dozed off under, wait a second… there was a note taped to the trunk.

I tore the piece of paper off of the bark and read it aloud, "Finn," It began, "My dad texted me, said he needed help with something at my place, I saw you were asleep so I didn't want to wake you up. Don't worry this neighborhood isn't that dodgy, I think. See you at school tomorrow."

After doing a quick check of the contents of my bag to make sure nothing had been stolen, I hastily folded the note and shoved it in my back pocket, I would complain to Marceline about not waking me up later.

I didn't know exactly where I was at first, but after coming across some of the more memorable street names I managed to find my way back to Grass Kingdom road.

Arriving back at Jake's place, I let myself in. The house itself wasn't exactly huge, it consisted of two bedrooms and a lounge-kitchen area, but it gave off a sort of… welcoming feeling, like I had been living there for years.

"Made friends already, huh?" Jake had just emerged from his room after hearing me enter the house.

"What makes you say that?" I asked, wondering how he knew.

"Well, you've been out for at least three hours after school." My Step-Brother explained. "And I didn't think you could've gotten a detention this early, right?"

I laughed at the irony in that, "No I didn't get a detention." I added quickly when Jake gave me a concerned look, "I was hanging out with a friend at the park."

"Oh, the one with that weird statue!" Jake replied, "You know, I got my first kiss with Rainy under a fig tree at that park."

"Rainy?" I raised my eyebrows, Jake had never told me that he had a girlfriend.

"Oh, yeah, you haven't met her have you…" He said a little sheepishly, "I'll have to get her over for dinner sometime, introduce you two and stuff." Jake paused for a moment, looking a bit awkward, "So who's this dude you've been hanging out with?"

"She's a, uh, girl actually." I replied, noticing that Jake seemed a lot more interested after I mentioned the friend was a female. "Marceline's her name."

Jake's expression of curiosity quickly morphed into one of surprise and then one of shock.

"You don't mean-" He began.

"Bass guitar Marceline?" I cut him off, "Yes I do mean her, why is it that everyone seems so concerned that I'm hanging out with her, she seems cool."

"Look dude…" Jake began, I could tell he was picking his words carefully, "I'm not trying to be that guy who chooses your friends for you, but maybe Marceline isn't the best person to hang out with considering… uh-"

"Considering what?" I snapped, it was really pissing me off how everyone seemed to want me away from Marceline but nobody would tell me why.

"Just… be careful." Jake replied, clearly not wanting to continue the conversation any further. "There's a burrito in the fridge if you're hungry."

I mumbled a thanks and opened the fridge, taking the foil-wrapped food and disappearing into my room.

I almost instantly flopped face first onto my bed. Today had definitely not been what I expected, but then again, I didn't really know what I was expecting in this tiny town.

The important thing was, I had made a few friends and had managed, for the most part, to keep my mind off the… stuff.

I just hoped I could keep it that way.

* * *

 **Hey all, I'm back with some more quick author notes.**

 **Right now the story has been getting updates fairly quickly with a chapter update once a day, I would just like to say that although I will try, this speed will probably not keep up as I have school to deal with.**

 **Anyway, If you have any** **criticism or praise, don't be afraid to drop a review! All reviews, negative and positive (As long as they aren't flames of course) are very much appreciated and either help me to find and eliminate my weaknesses as a writer for the former, and give a boost of confidence to keep writing this fic for the later.**

 **Thanks for reading! ~LivingTorch**


	5. Knight in Training

Bloodstream

* * *

Chapter Four: Knight in Training

 _Left foot… Right foot… Left foot… Right foot… Left foot… Right foot…_

It was only the second day of school and the Coach was already having our P.E. class doing five mile run, I was starting to understand why the students had such a negative reaction toward him at the start of the year.

Of course, I didn't mind the run, if anything good came out of last year it was definitely the fact that I had kept in shape. Even so, kickboxing was very different from running and as I neared the end of the five miles, I could feel my muscles aching.

"Good work out there!" Billy enthused as we all gathered back in the gym, "Remember, stand up, hands behind your head, open up your diaphragm… that's it, good."

The bell went off and all the students scrambled to collect their things, excited for their break. All of the students but me, I had a fencing team to join.

"Hey Coach can I ask you about something?" I said.

"Sure Finn, anything you want." Billy replied, looking up from his clipboard.

"So I was thinking over your offer to join the fencing team last night and I decided that I've changed my mind, I do want to sign up." I said, hoping he wouldn't ask about my change of heart, the last thing I needed was the Coach finding out the only reason I was doing this was because of some girl.

Billy smiled approvingly, "That's great Finn, I'll just take your name down here. Be here after school, let's say… Friday, for your grading."

"Thanks coach!" I said, relieved he hadn't questioned me, "One more thing, what exactly is this… grading?"

"Ah, at our school we have a beginners and experts fencing team, just means that we don't have to teach our skilled fencers stuff they already know." The Coach explained.

Shit. Phoebe had mentioned something about getting into the expert team yesterday, I completely forgot… this was not part of the plan, there was no way I would be able to get into the expert team with only three days to prepare.

"Is that alright with you, Finn?" Billy asked, confused at my sudden silence.

"Uh, yeah, that'd be fine, I'll be there." I replied hastily, grabbing my bag and rushing to the cafeteria.

* * *

I sat myself down at the table next to Beemo, giving a quick greeting to the shy boy before removing my sandwich from my bag. Bacon again… what was it with my Step-Brother and bacon?

This time Phoebe had arrived before me and I found myself trying to remember how to chew my food as I looked into her beautiful, fiery eyes. God, she was so hot… I really needed to get into that expert team, I had no idea how I would do it, but I would get there.

"Fiiiiiinn."

I was pulled from my thoughts by Bonnie calling my name from across the table.

"Uh, yeah?" I replied dumbly.

"So did you sign up for fencing today?" She asked.

"Yeah, Coach Billy got everything sorted out for me." I said, trying incredibly hard to ignore Phoebe's gaze on me. "I've got grading on Friday."

"Really?" She gave a look of surprise. I raised my eyebrows, prompting her to explain the shocked look, "Oh, Billy usually gives people more time than two days to prepare… especially new kids."

"He probably thinks you're pretty good then." Phoebe winked at me and I felt myself blush a bit.

"Heh, I wouldn't know why he'd think that." I said modestly, "He hasn't really seen me do much."

Even though I didn't show it, I was quite annoyed upon hearing coach usually gave people more time to prepare. The only reason I was joining this stupid sport at all was to get closer to Phoebe, and how the hell could do that from the beginners team? I was going to have to put in a lot of work over the next two days if I even wanted a chance at getting in.

Suddenly I noticed Marceline stroll into the cafeteria, her long raven hair draping over the bass guitar that was strapped onto her back.

Weird, Marceline was almost never around other people, what was she doing in the cafeteria?

I watched her scan the area, looking for something, the kids at the table nearest where she was standing seemed to be eyeing her cautiously. Everyone in the whole school seemed to either dislike or have a fear of her, it was strange, I had never seen her act out against anyone; hell, I had never seen her do anything that matched the reputation that hung around her like a dark fog.

Suddenly Marceline's eyes met mine and she began to walk towards the table. I looked to my left to see Bonnie looking at Marceline bitterly, Beemo seemed to be just about to run off and hide and Phoebe… I could never really tell what Bonnie was thinking.

Marceline approached the table, giving a cold stare towards Bonnie, which quickly transformed into a forced smile. There was definitely something going on between those two, and whatever it was it wasn't good.

"Finn." Marceline said blankly.

"Uh, yeah?" I replied, not quite sure how to act in the situation at hand. I felt that if I so much as breathed too heavily, I would start an all out fight between Bonnie and Marceline.

"Meet me by the school gates again, I'll be waiting." It wasn't a question, Marceline knew I didn't have anything else happening, I had just moved here after all. But I didn't think that was the reason she had spoken so blatantly…

"Aren't you going to ask if Finn actually wants to go!?" Bonnie yelled towards Marceline.

"Nah…" The raven-haired girl gave a dismissive wave and began to walk off. I saw the beginnings of a smile, struggling to be contained as Bonnie began to shout again,

"You can't just treat someone like that and expect them to show up!"

So that was why, she wanted to piss off Bonnie as much as possible. It wasn't like her to get this worked up about something, but being around Marceline seemed to make something in Bonnie break.

Suddenly Bonnie turned to me, "Tell her you won't be pushed around like that! Tell her you won't just hang out with her if she acts like that toward you!"

I froze, why, oh why did you have to ask for my opinion? No matter what I said, someone was going to leave the cafeteria pissed off at me, something that I desperately wanted to avoid.

"Um, I was actually planning on hanging out with her anyway…" I said, shrinking into my chair under Bonnie's gaze. I looked towards Phoebe, her face was expressionless.

"See?" Marceline smirked, leaving the cafeteria in victory.

Bonnie watched her go, I could see the anger in her eyes, slowly fading as she brought herself back under control. She suddenly looked towards me, causing me to flinch.

"I'm sorry I got so angry." She said, taking me by surprise.

"It's okay." I replied, trying to move on from the whole situation, "Really, it is."

"It's just…" Bonnie gave a sigh, "Marceline isn't someone you want to associate yourself with."

"So I've been told." I answered, was that the fourth time someone had warned me about Marceline? I really don't understand what the problem is with her.

Phoebe suddenly looked toward me, "Finn, there are things you don't know about Marceline."

"What things?" I asked, trying to keep any traces of anger out of my voice. "You all tell me not to hang out with her, but none of you tell me why."

 _Ringinginginginging_

The bell sounded, just in time to interrupt the conversation at its most important point of course.

"See ya Bonnie, See ya Beemo, See ya Finn." Phoebe said, immediately leaving the room.

"Bye guys." Bonnie replied also turning to leave.

"Wait!" I called out to her, "What did Marceline do?"

"Just be careful Finn." Was the only reply I got before Bonnie exited the cafeteria.

* * *

I stood outside the school gates, Marceline apparently wasn't waiting for me despite her claim during lunch.

A million thoughts were racing through my head as I remembered the encounter between Marceline and Bonnie. What had Marceline done in the past that was so terrible? Why did Bonnie, the calm and collected inventor suddenly flood with rage in the presence of the Raven haired girl? And why was it that people kept telling me to be careful around Marceline?

I had so many questions with no answers and it was getting on my nerves. I hated not knowing things, and I hated not being able to do anything about it. I couldn't exactly ask Marceline, I doubted she would take too kindly to that. Bonnie and Phoebe definitely had their lips sealed on the subject, maybe Beemo would spill the beans under some interrogation… no, I couldn't do that to the poor kid, he'd feel terrible having given away the information.

What was I supposed to do?

Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder, "Come on Finny let's go." It was Marceline, having finished up whatever it was she did after class.

"Finny? Really?" I replied, causing Marceline to start laughing.

"I knew it would annoy you!" She said triumphantly.

"Whatever…" I sighed, "Where are we going exactly?" I asked, realising we hadn't really planned out what we were going to do.

"Back to the park with the weird statue." Marceline said, "I like it there."

"Speaking of the park…" I said as we started to walk, "Why'd you leave me sleeping there?"

"Oh, you looked peaceful, I didn't want to wake you up." She explained.

"What if someone stole my wallet?"

"Did they?"

"No but-"

"Exactly, now stop complaining."

I gave a sigh, knowing that the argument was going nowhere. Marceline really was stubborn.

We walked the rest of the way to the park in silence. I thought about Marceline, about what Phoebe and Bonnie had said about her, about the way Bonnie seemed to absolutely despise her. I thought about the impending fencing trials, I had never tried fencing before… never even picked up a sword, how was I supposed to get good enough for the expert team in just two days?

"So what's up?" Marceline asked as we arrived at the park.

"What do you mean?" I replied, wondering what Marceline was talking about.

"You look worried about something." She explained.

"Oh, yeah…" I sighed. "You know how I signed up for fencing to impress Phoebe?"

"Yeah." Marceline chuckled. "It's adorable."

"Shut up." I said, trying to shrug off the comment, "Well Phoebe is in the expert division and I've got grading in two days… I've never even tried fencing before, how am I meant to get in the same team?"

Marceline walked over to a nearby tree and snapped off two thin branches, she tossed one to me before standing opposite.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Teaching you to fence, now come at me."

I approached Marceline, holding the make-shift sword in front of my face, looking for an opening in my opponent's guard.

Suddenly Marceline struck at my legs, moving the wooden weapon like a striking cobra. The thing made contact with my shins, sending a shock of pain through my body.

"Ow!" I exclaimed.

Marceline ignored my protest. "Don't just hold the blade in front of your face, this isn't kickboxing, you need to protect your legs too."

I shifted my grip on the stick, centering it as Marceline took her place opposite me again.

This time when she swung at me I was ready; her wooden blade flashed out towards my left shoulder, I flung my own weapon up, parrying the strike. I grinned at my success, but the moment of victory was short lived as Marceline's sword immediately lashed out towards my chest, sending another wave of pain through my body as the wood connected.

"Don't use such large movements." Marceline instructed, "Keep them short and sharp, it doesn't matter how hard you hit the opponent it's still only worth one point."

We continued on like that for hours, a short burst of swordplay with myself on the losing end, followed by Marceline giving advice on what I could have done better. Despite me not winning a single bout, I still felt myself improving, lasting longer and longer against Marceline's relentless attacks, blocking more and more.

As we walked home I could feel my bones aching from weariness and having been beaten countless times with Marceline's 'sword'. Eventually we came to Grass Kingdom Road.

As I was about to turn and leave for Jake's house Marceline stopped me, "You learn fast Finny." She said with a smile.

"You're a great teacher Marcy." I replied, returning the smile.

"Hey! Only I get to use nicknames!" Marceline protested.

"Whatever Marcy…" I taunted before walking off down the road.

* * *

 **Hey! Here's the next chapter, a bit late I know, but I've been working on story boarding my other fan fiction and got a little side tracked... but at least it's here.**

 **Let me know what you think about the story so far with a review! I love to know what I can improve on in future chapters and reviews in general always give me a boost in confidence, knowing someone is reading the fic.**

 **So anyways, thanks for reading! ~LivingTorch**


	6. The Trials

Bloodstream

* * *

Chapter Five: The Trials

It was a Thursday afternoon, the third day of my rigorous fencing training with Marceline and still I had not been able to beat her once. I had been close, but I got the feeling that she let me get close.

She was incredibly good at this, either that or I was just really bad, I hoped it was the former. Every time I managed to get off the defensive and start making strikes of my own, Marceline would just parry one and immediately change the momentum back in her favour.

It just then occurred to me that I had never asked how Marcy got so good. I was pretty sure she wasn't on the fencing team and I wouldn't know what reason someone would have to practice fencing if they weren't doing the sport… it wasn't often you needed to participate in a swordfight out in the real world.

To be, I didn't really know anything about Marceline's past. Hell, I didn't even know what street she lived on and we had been walking home together the past three days. I knew she was an amazing guitarist and for some unexplained reason a great fencer, but other than that Marceline was shrouded in the mist of mystery.

I noticed the sun was beginning to finish its crawl to the horizon, signalling that our training session was soon coming to an end.

"Do you think we should start heading back now?" I asked Marceline as she struck my chest for the third time in a row.

Marceline shrugged, "One more go at it and we'll head back."

I nodded my head in agreement, once again taking my place opposite Marcy. I watched her eyes, trying to read what she was planning… she had told me you could find out a lot about your opponent's strategy by reading their eyes.

In a real match her face would have been concealed by a white helmet of course, but then I would resort to reading body positioning. Marceline had been adamant that I could do that, she had said that my reaction speed alone was not fast enough to stop a decent fencer.

"En Garde!" Marceline yelled jokingly before coming at me with her wooden sword.

She struck first, firing a quick shot to my left, I flashed my own weapon up to meet hers before getting in a counter attack. After Marceline easily parried that I returned my weapon to its starting position, deflecting a swipe to my right flank.

Well this was lasting longer than usual. I snapped my weapon down below me, only just managing to block Marceline's third strike, I needed to get an attack in myself, Marcy had been on the offensive for almost the whole bout.

I whipped my blade out to my left, deflecting a forward thrust, before immediately transitioning into a strike for Marcy's left shoulder.

Just as I had expected Marceline's blade was in position to block before my own weapon had crossed even half of the distance towards her arm.

This of course made it much easier for me to suddenly change the course of my strike, now aiming for Marceline's hip.

I smiled as I saw Marceline's look of surprise as she realised what I was doing, but even for her lightning fast movements it was too late. My make-shift sword connected with her body, ending the bout in my favour.

Marceline looked kind of shocked at her defeat. She dropped her weapon onto the grassy floor of the park and I almost expected her to demand a rematch. But instead her look of shock morphed into a smile,

"You're ready." She grinned.

* * *

"Hey Jake." I called out as I walked into the house. My step-brother was deep in concentration, attempting to cook something in a pan that smelt strongly of bacon while going over some cue cards.

Jake suddenly looked up, seeing me in the doorway. "Oh hey F-Woah!" He gave a yell of surprise as he lost concentration as he dropped his cue cards into the frying pan. "Well shit."

"What were you making?" I asked, trying to stifle my laughter.

"Magic…" Jake mumbled sadly, "I was making magic… it was going to be the greatest thing I had ever eaten."

"I'm sure you can make another." I said, unable to stop myself from smiling at how seriously my step-brother took food.

"You don't understand…" Jake replied, "That thing had bacon from every state in the country… it was a one of a kind…"

So that's what Jake spent the money he earned from his part time jobs on. Foreign bacon.

"Why don't you try fishing out the cards?" I suggested, now feeling the tiniest bit sorry for him.

"Yeah… I'll try…" He sighed, grabbing a pair of tongs and beginning to pick out burnt pieces of paper from the pan.

I left Jake to the laborious task and disappeared into my room. Sitting on the edge of my bed I stared at a spot on my wall. They were quite bare, the walls, I decided I would go out and find some crappy posters to put on them over the coming weekend, maybe even get a lava lamp… I used to have one of those before… _it_ happened.

I quickly shifted my thoughts to the future, thinking about my fencing trials tomorrow. Marceline had seemed so confident that I would get into the expert team, but I honestly found it quite difficult to believe such a thing. I mean we had only been practicing for three days and I could hardly call Marceline a qualified teacher. I mean she was stupidly good at fencing, but she just wasn't the teaching type.

"Don't worry about this…" I said softly to myself, "You've got this Finn, you've been putting in so much hard work over these past few days."

Yeah, I was ready, it was going to take more than a mountain to stop me from getting into that expert division. I was going to get in and there was nothing anybody could do about that.

I got up from my bed, quickly raiding the fridge for a snack before returning to my room where I collapsed into the folds of sleep.

* * *

It was after school on Friday, I waited outside the gymnasium for coach Billy to come down and start the grading. I would be lying if I told you I wasn't nervous… hell, nervous was an understatement, I could feel my arms and legs shaking in anticipation for the coming session.

I wondered what the grading would involve, maybe I would have to spar with some training dummy, maybe I would have to go a few rounds with someone from the fencing team… I honestly did not have a clue as to how these trials would go down, I just hoped it wouldn't involve a pen and paper, theory was not my strong suite. I was a practical dude who was in his element getting his hands dirty, not cooped up in some exam room.

Suddenly the doors of the gym opened and I saw Billy, he motioned for me to come through the doors, not saying a word.

As I passed through the entrance my jaw dropped, across the room in her fencing gear minus the helmet was Phoebe. No amount of training in the world could have prepared me for this encounter, how the hell was I supposed to fence against someone who every bone in my body would tell me not to hit… let alone strike with a sword.

"Hey Finn!" Phoebe called out to me, a smile on her face.

I blushed at her enthusiasm, "H-hey." I stuttered out, heading towards her.

"There's fencing equipment over there." Billy said, pointing to an area on the wall, "We have cheaper swords at the school but I would advise you purchasing a newer blade in the future."

I took a white uniform off of the wall, heading into the changing rooms to put the thing on. It was rather stuffy and didn't fit me all that well, but it would do. I then lifted the sword Billy had given me, it was lighter than I had expected, lighter even than the branches Marcy and I had sparred with… I would be able to react much faster with these.

I went back out into the gym, seeing Billy had set up a small elevated area that would serve as the arena. It's length was covered in thin protective mats.

"Basically how this is going to work," Coach began to explain, "You are going to go up against one of the other fencers, in this case it was Phoebe who volunteered to be your opponent."

Phoebe smiled and gave me a wave at the mention of her name causing me to fight back my growing blush. She had volunteered to be my opponent? Did that mean she like-liked me? Or was did she just regular like me and was being nice?

"You will then have a short match, where the first to obtain three points, hits on the opponent, will be declared the victor. I will then make a judgement of what division to put you in based off of how well you performed." Billy finished his explanation.

"Okay, I think I understand." I said, placing my helmet over my head, watching as Phoebe did the same.

We both took our places opposite each other, I couldn't see her face under the mask she wore but I could feel her eyes on me, trying to discern my plan of attack. But just like Marceline had taught me to, I never came up with a plan in the first place, fencing was all about reacting with speed, something you simply could not plan for.

"En garde!" Billy shouted, signalling the beginning of the bout.

Phoebe immediately lunged at me, thrusting towards my lower chest. I managed to jump back and parry the attack, but not without exposing my sword arm, which was immediately struck.

 _Bzzt_

A buzzer went off, notifying us of the point scored by Phoebe. I attempted a thrust of my own now, aimed at Phoebe's upper leg. But the attack was slow and clumsy, allowing her to easily deflect the attack and riposte, gaining another strike against my sword arm.

 _Bzzt_

I needed to focus! I looked at the mask, telling myself that there was someone else beneath the metal frame… this was just like I was sparring with Marceline at the park, it was no different…

Phoebe made a lunge toward my off-hand, my sabre immediately came up and parried the attack, I made a counter-thrust, sending the tip of my weapon towards the inside of my opponent's sword arm, which she only just managed to block.

Phoebe tried to riposte but I made a continuation of the attack, sliding past her guard and striking her chest.

 _Bzzt_

I was back on a roll. I took a half-pace backwards, allowing myself to parry a lunge from Phoebe before, plotting out a movement. I read her movement's as Marceline had taught me, I flicked my blade in a circular motion, knocking Phoebe's out of the way as she attempted to strike my stomach. I then made a lunge of my own, striking my opponent's off-hand.

 _Bzzt_

It was tied up now, any mistake from either of us would have the match lost. I made a thrust towards Phoebe's left flank, she easily parried the attack, following up with a riposte which I only just managed to deflect by dashing backward and whipping my hilt-guard in front of the strike.

I made another quick deflection as Phoebe made a continuation of her stroke. I then feinted a thrust towards her knee, quickly shifting the movement into a lunge for her shoulder. However she had read the movement, extending her sword arm to deflect the attack with the hilt while making a counter attack.

With my sword locked in Phoebe's hilt I had no way to defend myself from the oncoming strike except to simply step backwards and hope it would be enough.

 _Bzzt_

The buzzer sounded as Phoebe's blade struck my thigh. I had lost.

We both took our helmets off, breathing heavily from the intense match.

"Holy crap you were better than I expected." Phoebe laughed, "I thought I was going to have you beat three-zero, hell was I wrong."

"Well you almost did." I pointed out, joining her laugh.

"But then you turned it around so well!" She smiled at me, extending her arm out to shake my hand. "Where did you learn all this?"

"Uh…" I internally debated whether or not I should tell her about Marceline training me. "I guess fencing has similar concepts to kickboxing." I lied, deciding against mentioning the tutoring in fear that she might start up another speech about how I should be careful around Marceline.

"So Coach." Phoebe said, turning toward Billy, "Have you made a decision?"

The coach's gaze fell on me, looking intensely into my own eyes. It almost felt like the old man was trying to read my mind.

"I think I might have." He answered Phoebe, never taking his eyes off of me.

* * *

 **Yay! Cliffhanger! I just love knowing things that my readers don't and then taunting them with it. I'm such a dick :)**

 **Anyways, thanks for checking out the fic and reading this far into the mess that it is, I understand that there is only so much of my writing that someone can take. Remember, if you think there is anything I can improve on, leave a review, it really helps to make me a better writer.**

 **As always, thanks for reading! ~LivingTorch**


	7. Fire and Magic

Bloodstream

* * *

Chapter Six: Fire and Magic

I looked at Billy expectantly, the suspense was killing me. I could practically feel my knees shaking in anticipation of the coach's decision on my placement… I just really hoped all the hard work had paid off.

But would he let me in if I lost? I mean it hadn't been by that much, but I had made a pretty appalling start and that could have made all the difference.

"Finn." Coach looked at me solemnly, "I'll be placing you in the beginner's division.

No… all that training… had it really been for nothing? I cast my eyes to the floor in defeat, I couldn't believe that I wasn't going to be in the same team as Phoebe.

The coach noticed my downcast look, "You know that was a joke right?" Billy asked, "There's no way I could put you in the beginner's division, not after a performance like that."

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank You!" I almost screamed, suddenly I noticed the coach looking at me strangely. "Sorry, I'm just really psyched about fencing."

"That isn't what you were saying just four days ago." Billy pointed out with a sly smile. "I suppose it doesn't matter does it? Anyway, trainings are in the gym after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

"Math!" I said in excitement, "So is that all I need to do here?" I asked, wondering if Billy would surprise me with some other hidden test.

"Yes Finn, you can go now." He replied, walking off to fetch his clipboard.

Phoebe and I got changed back into our regular clothes and then exited the gym.

"You seemed a bit over-excited." Phoebe said, laughing a bit.

"Yeah…" I felt a bit embarrassed looking back at the way I had acted, "I had just worked really hard to get good enough for this team, I'm just glad it all payed off."

"You must have been training every spare moment you got." Phoebe said, "You were really good, especially since you only had the week to practice."

I felt myself go slightly red at Phoebe's praise, "Nah… I wasn't that great." I replied, "You really kicked my butt at the start of that match, I just got a bit lucky."

"Whatever, I still think you were amazing." Phoebe concluded the argument. We fell into an awkward silence after that, just walking through the halls of the school, occasionally stealing glances at each other.

Phoebe was awesome… I gave a sigh. Not only was she incredibly hot, but she was great at sports too. I was surprised she wasn't embarrassed to be seen with the weird new kid.

"Hey Finn?" Phoebe looked up at me when we reached the school gates.

"Yeah?" I replied, glad that the moment of quiet had been broken.

"We haven't really gotten to know each other all that well and I was thinking that we could hang out tomorrow. It is the weekend and all." She said, her beautiful ruby eyes stared into mine, waiting expectantly for an answer.

"Y-yeah!" I stuttered, hoping I hadn't sounded too stupid. "That'd be great, where do you want to meet up?"

"Have you figured out where the main street is yet?" She asked.

"Well yeah, I'm not _that_ bad at finding my way around." I replied sarcastically, earning a giggle from Phoebe.

"Meet me at that burger place around eleven?"

"I'll be there." I said, silently bursting with excitement. "Well I gotta go, I was supposed to back ten minutes ago."

"Alright." Phoebe smiled, "See you tomorrow Finn!"

With that we both walked off in opposite directions from the school. I thought about what had just happened as I walked. Not only had I somehow managed to get into the advanced fencing division but Phoebe had also asked me out on a date! Okay, maybe it was a bit extreme to call it a date, but it was something. Today was definitely the greatest day I had experienced yet in this new town, man this place was awesome for its size.

Suddenly I stopped walking and widened my eyes in realization. I was feeling something I hadn't felt in a very long time, something that I hadn't felt since the deaths of my parents almost a year ago. I was happy.

"So how'd it go."

I spun around to see that Marceline had somehow snuck up behind me, a huge grin spread across her face as she saw my look of confusion as to how she had managed it.

"How did what go?" I asked, still off guard from her sudden appearance.

"The grading you idiot." She replied, "What else would I be talking about."

"Oh, I got into the advanced team." I said, "All thanks to you of course." I added, knowing that without the rigorous training I had been through with Marceline there was no way I would have made it.

"You bet it's all thanks to me." She joked, very un-modestly. "You were like a fish out of water on that first day we started training."

"Yeah, yeah." I laughed, "How did you end up getting so good anyway? You don't do fencing this year do you?"

Marceline's smile suddenly faded. Her eyes, breaking contact with mine, she seemed to be remembering some horrible event from the past.

"I used to." She said plainly, "But then I quit."

I didn't feel like it would be wise to press for more answers so I just continued to walk ahead without saying anything.

"So it's gonna be your first weekend in this town tomorrow, right?" Marceline asked, masterfully changing the subject and avoiding an awkward silence.

"Yeah." I replied, "I don't really know what I'm supposed to do in a town this size though."

"How about we hang tomorrow? I know this really good place for-" She began before I cut her off mid sentence.

"I'm actually going to meet up with Phoebe tomorrow." I explained, hoping Marcy wouldn't be pissed, instead she did something much worse.

"Finally got that hot date, huh?" She laughed as she saw me blushing.

"It's not like that!" I exclaimed, "We're just going as friends!"

"Oh whatever Finny, I know how these things go down." She continued laughing as my face somehow managed to get even redder than it was before. "Don't worry dude, I'm just messing with ya."

"Well I don't like it." I said with a touch of annoyance in my voice.

"Aw, Finny don't be like that." Marceline said mockingly, "It was just a joke."

"Whatever Marcy." I replied.

"Hey! I said you weren't aloud to call me that!"

* * *

I woke up on Saturday morning at nine-thirty, punching my alarm as I got up. Usually I'd sleep till the afternoon on the weekends and then get some kickboxing practice in, when the evening came around. But today I was meeting up with Phoebe and I needed to make sure I was ready.

I pulled on a pair of blue jeans and pulled a white hoodie on. I checked myself over in the mirror, making sure I didn't look like some kind of tramp. Satisfied with my clothes, I ruffled my thick blonde hair around, finding that no matter how hard I tried, it always managed to fall back into my eyes… it had always been like that.

I gave up on my hair and picked up my bear-beanie from where I had hung it on the door. I knew Phoebe was probably going to find it a bit childish, but I always wore the thing when I wasn't at school, it was all I had left to remember my parents by.

I walked out into the kitchen, noticing Jake was still asleep in his room. I wrote out a note saying I would be out, but would be back in time for dinner and then set off towards the main street.

I roughly remembered the way from when Marceline had shown me around. I had allowed myself forty-five minutes to get to the shops even though I knew it would realistically only take me fifteen. But I was excited and wanted a bit of a safety net in case I somehow got lost.

I arrived outside the burger place and checked my phone for the time. _10:36_ it read, I still had almost a half hour to kill before Phoebe got here, so I walked around the shops for a bit, trying to see what interesting stuff I could find.

"Psst, you there."

I turned around, seeing a rather dodgy looking guy a bit older than me calling out to me from a space between two shops. Having nothing better to do, I made the rather stupid decision of approaching the guy.

"You're the new kid at our school aren't ya?" He asked me, I noticed his arms and legs were vibrating like he was constantly being electrocuted.

"Um, yeah." I replied, "Who are you?"

"The name's Dan, but everybody just calls me Magic Man." He said, looking proud of himself for the title.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"Because I can get things for you that'll flip your whole world around." He said with a grin, "Look at this!" He withdrew a bag of white powder that I recognised instantly as heroin.

 _Hey there Finn._ It seemed to say, _Look who's back!_

I stumbled backwards, trying to put as much distance between myself and the evil substance as possible.

 _You know you want me Finn._

No, I suddenly realised, I don't want you… not anymore. I'm happy now, I'm over that stupid drug.

"I think I'll pass." I said to the self-proclaimed, 'Magic Man'.

"Well that's too bad." He gave a laugh and I noticed that he was high himself. "You know where to find me if you change your mind!"

I walked out of the alleyway, away from the strange person. I had done it, I had beaten the heroin. I felt a sense of pride as I walked, my life was turning around.

I looked ahead and saw Phoebe, waiting by the burger place, she looked up and saw me, giving a smile as I walked towards her.

"Hey Finn!" She said, "Congratulations again on getting in the advanced team!"

"Thanks." I replied, returning Phoebe's smile. "So what do you want to do?"

"Well we are outside a burger shop, so I would think we would get some burgers." She said sarcastically.

"Yeah, I guess." I laughed, opening the door for Phoebe as we entered the place.

I looked around, seeing a sign at the counter that read _Death's Burgers; The hottest stuff in the state._

"Death's Burgers, huh." I said to Phoebe, "Sounds welcoming."

"Yeah, it isn't the best name." Phoebe replied, "But trust me the burgers taste amazing."

We both approached the counter and a man wearing a cowboy hat turned around from where he had been grilling up beef patties.

"Phoebe, great to see ya!" He said smiling, "Is this your new boyfriend?"

I saw Phoebe's face flush red at the question and I could feel my own cheeks doing the same. "No!" She exclaimed, "He's just a friend of mine, he's new."

"Yeah!" I echoed, "She's just showing me around is all."

"Alright then." The man said, "So will you be having the usual?" He asked Phoebe.

"Yeah, that'd be great Miguel, Finn here will have one too, I'll pay." Phoebe replied.

"You don't need to do that!" I protested, "I've got money right here!" I withdrew a ten dollar note, handing it to Phoebe only to have her push it away.

"Just think of it as a reward for you getting into the advanced fencing team." She said, handing her money to Miguel.

We sat down at a table together, Miguel had brought out two of the biggest burgers I had ever seen. I was going to have to use a knife and fork just to get the thing to fit in my mouth.

"Thanks Phoebe." I said, "You really didn't have to do that though."

"Nah it was nothing." She replied, "Besides I think what's about to happen next will be well worth the money."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"You'll find out." She said, winking slyly, "Now eat the burger."

I used the knife to cut off a large chunk of the burger, putting it in my mouth and starting to chew. Phoebe was right when she had said these were the best burgers around, the meat was juicy and tender, not processed to death like at other fast food places, and the sauce…Oh shit.

"Hot!" I almost screamed, as a wave of spiciness hit my tongue like a truck. "Need… water!"

Phoebe started cracking up laughing as my eyes searched the room in panic for something to drink.

"That's what I meant." Phoebe smiled as my tongue hung in the air, sweltering from the intense heat of the sauce. What the hell was in that stuff?

"Here." Phoebe handed me a drink bottle filled with milk. I immediately took the thing and drank it like I had never seen water in a year.

After the heat had died down enough for me to form a coherent sentence I stared at Phoebe. "You had planned this from the start!"

"Yep." She smiled, and I couldn't help but cracking up laughing along with her.

"You're evil." I said jokingly. "My tongue is practically dead!" I paused for a moment, giving a sly grin, "Now you have to eat your burger!"

"Okay." Phoebe said plainly, getting her own knife and for and taking a bite. I watched in amazement as she didn't react at all to the intense spiciness.

"How…" I said, awestruck she had eaten that like it was nothing.

"My parents make a lot of spicy food, I'm kinda immune to it now." She explained, grinning at my reaction.

"You're awesome." Was all I could think to say.

Phoebe blushed, giving a small giggle. "Well I wouldn't say that…"

For the next hour we talked and laughed, exchanging happy memories from our childhood. I was careful to avoid anything that had to do with the death of my parents, I didn't feel quite ready to disclose that information yet.

Phoebe finished her burger and we left the building, exchanging goodbyes as we both headed back to our homes. I was grinning from ear to ear the whole trip back.

* * *

 **Hey guys, I'm back with the new chapter! It's a tad longer than the others but I doubt y'all will care too much about that. I decided to give this chapter a more conclusive ending to make up for the cliffhanger ending of the last one, but believe me there are plenty more where that came from.**

 **Once again, thanks for reading! ~LivingTorch**


	8. Mercenary

Bloodstream

* * *

Chapter Seven: Mercenary

I woke up to the sound of the telephone ringing. I checked my alarm clock to see it was only ten, a few hours before I had planned to wake up. Deciding that I couldn't be bothered struggling to get back to sleep, I lifted my body out of the bed and trudged out of my bedroom.

"Can you just give me a few more days?" Jake spoke through the phone, "Yes I know, I know, but I can't pay right now." He continued, seeming quite flustered. "Yes, thank you, I promise it won't happen again."

"What was that about?" I asked my step-brother, "That seemed pretty important."

"Oh, uh it's no big deal." Jake replied, he was trying to sound as carefree as possible but anyone with a brain could tell it was forced. I gave him a blank stare, prompting him to continue.

"When I was figuring out the added costs of you moving in I made a few errors and it turns out I can't afford to pay rent. The land lord says if I can't pay in the next week he's kicking me out." He said, eyes downcast, "But it's okay though, I can just work overtime for the next week, maybe pick up a second job. I'll probably have to skip some classes but that can't be helped."

"Dude…" I looked at him like he was crazy, "You can't push yourself like that, especially with uni and everything."

"It's fine." He said, desperately trying to play it off like he wasn't bothered. "Besides, where else am I supposed to get any money?"

"I could always get a job." I suggested, "I don't have much else to do after school and then you wouldn't have to work your ass off."

"Are you sure you're okay with that?" Jake asked, "I don't want you to feel like I'm forcing you into anything."

"It's all good man." I assured him, "How much are we short by anyways?"

"Uh…" Jake furrowed his brow, doing some quick calculations in his head, "We need an extra eighty bucks every two weeks."

"So if I can get a job that pays minimum wage…" I added the amounts, much slower than jake had, I was never really good at math. "I'd only need to work six-no, seven hours every two weeks. Easy."

"Finn, thanks dude, I owe you one." Jake said, looking visibly relieved that the problem had been solved.

"I'll head out and look for a job now." I said, disappearing into my room to get changed and shower.

* * *

I walked down to the main street, I figured that would be a good place to start job-hunting with all the businesses around that area.

I gave a quick scan of the street, finding a community notice board with advertisements for events and stuff like that, maybe it would even have something from someone looking for an employee. My eyes skimmed through the notice board, looking for something that could earn me money, upon finding nothing obvious I looked a little harder… there really was nothing, I guess there aren't too many job opportunities in such a small town.

"Kid!" I heard a voice calling out to me from an alley between two shops. "Yo, kid come over here!" It was that Magic Man creep, the junkie who had tried selling me heroin. I thought about ignoring him at first, but I decided to see what he was asking about anyways, if it was just him trying to sell me more drugs I would leave.

"What do you want?" I asked, trying to show him that I wasn't interested in his merchandise.

"You're lookin' for a job, right?" He said, his voice seemed to change pitch as he spoke.

"Well- yeah." I replied, "How did you know?"

"It was obvious." He unhelpfully explained, "So, are you interested?" He gave me a wink and a smile that made me feel rather uncomfortable.

"That depends…" I was rather skeptical of anything this guy had to offer, especially given that he was a drug dealer. "What would you have me do?"

Dan gave a grin and handed me a small parcel. "The police around here have started to get… well, suspicious of me. I've found it's becoming more and more difficult to deliver my goods."

"So? What do I have to do with this?" I looked at him wondering where the hell he was going with this.

"Well since I can't make deliveries anymore… I want you to do it!" He laughed maniacally, "I'll give you twenty percent of all profits."

"Hell no!" I exclaimed, shocked at the offer. "I just started to make a life for myself out here! I'm not gonna risk that all!"

"Oh come on…" He said, "It's not even that hard, you just go to the drop zone, collect the money and then place the merchandise. Easy."

"Look man." I stared him dead in the eyes, "I can't do this, I won't do this, I don't care how easy it is." I turned to leave but the crazy guy grabbed my arm.

"Wait!" He exclaimed, "I believe this one last piece of persuasion will change your mind!" I gave him a blank stare, starting to get annoyed. "This delivery will get me just over a thousand bucks, so you…" He counted out some numbers on his fingers, "Will get two hundred and ten dollars exactly."

My jaw dropped. Two Hundred dollars for one delivery? I could easily make the eighty bucks jake needed for his rent, and I'd have well over a hundred left over for myself, and if this was a regular thing… No, I couldn't do this, it could ruin me.

Suddenly Dan the Magic Man piped up again, "I see you're still skeptical about this, so tell ya what, I'll up the pay to twenty five percent and you'll only have to deliver one parcel every two weeks. What'd'ya say?"

I thought for a moment… if I was only doing it once a week and it was easy as Dan made it out to be… It was just too good an opportunity to pass up, I might not be able to find any work at all if I turned this down. Of course I would have to lie to Jake about how much money I was earning and where I was getting it from, but it would be good thing right? I was helping my step-brother out here, a few lies wouldn't mean anything right?

"You've got a deal." I said, taking the package from Dan, "Where do I go to drop it off?"

"I knew you'd come around!" The Magic Man smiled, shaking my hand roughly. "You know that dodgy park with the strange statue? There's this fig tree there, real spooky, if you do a bit of digging beneath the roots you'll see an unmarked black envelope, all the money is in there. Just bury the package where you found the money and come back here, you can take your cut and be on with your life."

"Alright." I confirmed, not entirely sure if I was making the right decision. "I'll be back in about half an hour."

"And I will be waiting eagerly!" Dan said. He flashed a grin at me before disappearing back into the shadows of the alleyway.

"Great." I say to the darkness, already beginning to regret my choice.

* * *

I began the walk to the park, tossing what I had just agreed to back and forth in my head. Was this really the right thing to do? We needed money to pay rent and I doubted I would be able to find any other jobs in the town, let alone one that paid this much for doing so little. But I still felt this tingling feeling at the back of mind, telling me that what I was doing was morally wrong.

I was giving people access to the drug the had consumed me. What if

My delivery caused more people to become hooked? No… that wouldn't happen, I would only be delivering to people who used it as a party drug and then ditched it. I think. I hope.

I mean, what were the chances of a second depressed teenager showing their faces in this tiny town, very little indeed. This was a good thing I was doing; giving someone a quick high and then getting money for our rent in return. Nothing wrong with it at all.

I arrived at the park, heading to the fig tree where I had fallen asleep

listening to Marcy's bass guitar. Strange that it would be the same place that Dan used for his drop off spot.

Just like the Magic Man had instructed I dug around the roots for a bit, eventually coming across the black envelope. I quickly deposited the bag of white powder, giving a look around to make sure no one had spotted me, then I pocketed the envelope and headed back to where Dan had confronted me in the alleyway.

"There, easy." I told myself, "No one is gonna get hurt, everything's gonna turn out fine."

But still there was that feeling, telling me that I was somehow betraying my own morals and beliefs. I mentally told it to shut up and continued walking, I had no other choice, I needed this money for Jake, he'd probably be kicked out of the uni if he skipped classes for a week, I couldn't have that.

I arrived back in the alleyway, scanning the area for Dan. My eyes were met with nothing but the cold darkness of the shadows. I was about to call out when suddenly the Magic Man himself appeared to just meld from the shadows.

"You got the money!" He said excitedly, "I knew I could count on you, my little drug mule." He had somehow retrieved the envelope from my pocket without me knowing.

"Don't call me that." I snapped, "Now aren't we forgetting something?"

"Yes, yes. I was getting to that." He said, opening the envelope and counting out the money. "Bastard was ten dollars short!" He yelled, sounding rather annoyed. I gave him a glare that told him to hurry up and give me my payment, "There's ya cut bud, two-hundred and seventy dollars. I'll contact you in around two weeks."

I grabbed the money from his hands, opening up my wallet and pocketing the cash. I was about to thank him for the money but when I looked up to speak, he was gone, disappearing as quickly as he had come.

I didn't even bother to question the strangeness of it all this time, I just turned around and headed back home.

* * *

I opened the door, a slight smile on my lips as I felt the cash in my pocket.

"Well you certainly look happy." Jake said excitedly, "Did you manage to find a job?"

Shit… I had forgotten to come up with an alibi for Jake. My thoughts raced as I tried desperately to think of something, what job could I have gotten?

"Well, uh, I found some work delivering… er, ingredients to the businesses on the main street." I said, hoping Jake would buy the spontaneous story.

"Awesome!" Jake gave a huge grin, obviously too relieved that he would be able to pay rent to bother questioning me further. "We shall celebrate with bacon pancakes!"

"For dinner?" I asked, laughing a bit at my step-brothers odd food choices.

"Hell yeah for dinner!" He exclaimed, "There is never a wrong time to consume the heavenly goodness that is bacon pancakes!"

"When did you learn how to make these?" I said, wondering how Jake had come across the recipe.

"Well… I don't exactly remember, I got kinda drunk one night at a party and when I woke up I was covered in them, the bacon pancakes I mean." He said, sounding a bit embarrassed.

"Kinda drunk? Man you must have been wasted!" I exclaimed, Jake was actually a pretty cool guy.

"Heh, yeah I guess I was." He laughed, "Here, let me teach you how to make them, my original, drunken recipe."

"That sounds awesome." I said, moving over to where he stood in the kitchen. "So how do we start?"

All thoughts of the 'job' I had just acquired faded from my mind as Jake taught me the basics of the kitchen. We laughed pretty much the whole night long as I realised how uncoordinated I was when cooking. I felt so at home here in Ooo, like I had been growing up here my whole life and not just the one week.

I felt like I had finally broken down the wall that had been holding me back. I felt like I was finally getting to the good part of the story, where the protagonist overcomes his fears and becomes some unstoppable hero.

Oh how wrong I was.

* * *

 **Spooky right? Yeah, not really. But I'm happy to announce that next chapter we might finally be getting into the fun, awkward romantic parts of the story! Yay!**

 **I might chuck up a poll sometime, just to decide which of the female lead characters you guys like best, I kinda already have a decision about who Finn is gonna end up with, but a poll could swing my mind in another direction, or just further confirm my original plans.**

 **Anyways that's enough from me. Thanks for reading! ~LivingTorch**


	9. Clashing Blades

Bloodstream

* * *

Chapter Eight: Clashing Blades

It was tuesday after school, I had just come out of class and was heading towards the gymnasium, ready for fencing practice. I had talked to Phoebe at school today and I knew we were both psyched for the first practice of the year. We had even agreed to be training partners. I really think I'm getting closer to her.

As I walked into the gym I looked up in surprise as I saw Marceline, holding a sword and slashing at a training dummy. Each strike was incredibly fast and to the point, nothing fancy, I had learned she never tried anything like that from our own spars at the park.

"What are you doing here, Marcy?" I asked, curious as to why she had suddenly shown up.

"Oh, I thought I might pick up fencing again." She gave a sad smile, something I never expected from the girl. "I used to enjoy it before… before I quit, and you were doing it, so why not?"

Suddenly Bonnie walked into the room, giving a glance toward us, her eyes seeming to ignite with fury. "Marceline Abadeer!" She shouted across the gym, "If you are not part of the fencing team, you must immediately leave the area!" Out of every single person at Ooo high, Bonnie seemed to be the only one who was not the least bit afraid of her.

"Well I am part of the fencing team." Marceline replied casually, "I signed up yesterday, is that a problem?"

"Yes!" Bonnie exclaimed, "After… after what you did… you ruined everything for us. Just get out."

Marceline's eyes shot daggers at the pink-haired girl, anyone else would have immediately fled in terror. "What I did!?" Marceline shouted, "You were supposed to be there for me! You were supposed to help!"

Marceline's sword flashed towards Bonnie, barely missing her exposed throat.

"Marceline stop!" I shouted, watching in horror at the raw anger that blazed in her eyes. "You're going to hurt someone!"

She turned towards me, I swore she was going to take that blade and kill me right then. Her dark hair, whipped around her shoulders like some black hurricane, her teeth bared as if she were a wild animal, I had never seen her like this before.

Suddenly the fury faded from her eyes, being replaced with a look of realisation. Like she had just woken up from some terrible nightmare and was only now taking it all in, hitting her like a truck.

She straightened up, leaning the sword against the training dummy, her sarcastic demeanor returning almost as fast as it had left. It was as if I cyclone had just passed through the gym and it was now over. We all still felt its effects but it was gone.

"Bonnibel." Marceline grinned at Bonnie's look of distaste at the use of her full name, "If you don't want me here, then you can take up your complaints with Coach, look he's here right now."

"Just keep in line." Bonnie, turned and headed toward the changing rooms, not looking back.

What the actual flop had just happened? Marceline had almost slashed someone's throat and we were all going to pretend that nothing happened? Was this a regular occurrence between those two? My thoughts raced with the questions, something had definitely gone on way back, something I highly doubted I was going to like.

Billy entered the gym, Phoebe trailed close behind him, flashing me a smile as she entered. I was too confused by what I had just witnessed for my body to even blush, something I was thankful for with Marceline in the room to make fun of me, although I doubt she would have been in the mood for that.

"Welcome Finn and welcome back Marceline to the advanced fencing programme!" Billy said, although his facial expressions remained rather blank I could tell he was excited for this training session. "The four of you, I have dubbed the best of the best and while this year won't be easy, I'm sure it will be rewarding, and in the end, isn't that what sport is all about?"

He paused a moment, giving us the opportunity to take in his short speech. "Now go get prepared for training."

Once we had all donned the plain fencing suits and each taken a sword, Coach had us practice thrusts on the training mannequins. He told us a thrust was much harder to deflect than a swing as less of the blade's surface area is aimed toward your opponent, something I had learned days ago from Marceline.

I honestly found the whole exercise to be fairly pointless. I mean, why were we practicing against something that couldn't fight back? I didn't feel like this would be helping at all, but I didn't complain, Billy had probably been teaching fencers for years, I had only just picked up a blade a week ago, I couldn't really claim to have any experience on the subject.

So I continued to impale the lifeless dummy, striking it over and over again in a different place every time, it's sand filled body beginning to leak and spill out onto the gym floor. Would we have to clean that up afterwards? Probably… just one more reason to stop using these things.

I allowed my eyes to move around the room, looking at my fellow fencers. Bonnie was striking the mannequin with precision, her cold, analytical eyes calculating each thrust. Phoebe seemed to be putting more energy into her attacks, stabbing her blade into the dummy with huge amounts of force. I watched her for a moment, letting my mind get lost in the way her fiery hair would whip around her shoulders each time she struck the mannequin… The way her eyes were so filled with passion for the task ahead, focussing only on the dummy and nothing else.

Then there was Marceline, who… wasn't doing anything, just leaning up against a nearby wall.

"Marceline." I saw Billy walk over to where she was lounging about. "Why aren't you training?"

The raven-haired girl yawned, "Because it's stupid." I gave a small smile at that, I guess I wasn't the only one who thought this was a useless exercise.

Instead of getting mad with Marceline, like I had expected the coach to, he just asked; "And why do you think it's stupid?"

"Because I highly doubt we are going to see someone with no arms in an actual tournament." She replied, "Why aren't we doing something useful?"

Suddenly Bonnie stopped attacking her training dummy and gave a glare toward Marceline, "Look." She hissed, "I don't know what it is that made you want to come back here… but if you don't take this seriously I'll be forced to remove you from the team."

"So you're saying that hitting an inanimate sack over and over again is taking this seriously?" Marceline asked, voice dripping with sarcasm, "What a joke."

Well shit. This most definitely was not going to end well. I could practically see funnels of steam pouring out of Bonnie's ears as her anger increased at Marceline's bored response.

"Bonnie…" Phoebe had also abandoned her training and was placing her hand on the pink-haired girl's shoulder. "Just ignore her, it isn't worth it."

"Alright, I think Marceline has a point." Billy cut into the conversation, trying to prevent the situation from escalating. "We'll move onto something more practical next."

Marceline poked her tongue out at Bonnie, obviously struggling to contain her laughter.

"But…" Billy continued, addressing Marcy. "Bonnie is also correct in saying you need to take this a little more seriously, this is an advanced programme and I expect complete dedication." He paused, staring at Marceline for a good five seconds. "Are we clear?"

Marceline nodded her head, "Crystal." She said plainly, "Now let's move onto some of this practical stuff you've been talking about! I've been dying to kick Bonnie's ass since I got here!"

Bonnie just scoffed, "As if, you've been out of it for far too long."

"Let's test that theory, my dear Bonnibel." Marceline gave a sly grin as she winked at Bonnie. "You and me, right now, first to three, just like old times."

"Would that be alright coach?" Bonnie asked Billy, not taking her eyes off of Marceline.

"Hm, I suppose so." He said, "Finn might be able to watch this and learn a few things." The coach looked long and hard into both girl's eyes, almost looking as if he was trying to read their thoughts. Suddenly he spoke again, "But if either of you manage to injure someone, there will be consequences. Now take your positions."

* * *

Phoebe and I moved over to one side of the Gym, facing the odd little platform we had dueled on last friday. I watched as Marceline lifted her metal helmet, grinning slyly at Bonnie throughout the whole process. Oh man I wanted to know what had happened to make them hate each other so much.

"This isn't a good idea." Phoebe muttered from her position to my right, "They're going to hurt each other."

I raised my eyebrows, "How can you be so sure?" I asked, "The both of them are always so calm and in control."

"Usually, yes, but not always." Phoebe said, her face blank, "When

the two of them are in the same room… all hell breaks loose."

"Yeah…" I sighed, watching as Marceline and Bonnie stood up on the platform, facing each other motionlessly. "What's up with that, though? Why do they hate each other so much?"

"They have their reasons." Phoebe replied, straight faced and emotionless. I guess she wasn't going to give away anything to me, I really hated that, being so in the dark about everything that was going on in my newfound group of friends. I'll find out eventually though, they won't treat me like an outsider forever… I hoped.

Coach Billy stood up in front of the platform, analysing the forms of both fencers. "Begin when you are ready." He stated plainly.

Marceline was like a panther… no, much faster than that. Her blade was a bullet, her body the gun, there was no way in hell Bonnie could block the oncoming thrust. There was no way in hell anyone could. But to my amazement there was no buzzer sound to indicate Marceline's point.

I was right to say that there was no way Bonnie could parry the attack, but she could dodge it. Somehow the pink-haired girl had moved her hips to the right like some ballet dancer, gracefully avoiding the thrust as if it were a choreographed move.

She then arched her blade towards Marceline's left flank, the attack was nowhere near as fast as Marcy's thrust, but it was far more calculated. Marceline would have to almost turn her entire body around to parry attack.

Unfortunately for Bonnie, Marceline was able to do just that. She whirled her torso around like a tornado, flicking her sword up to smash Bonnie's own weapon well away from her. She then came in for a counter-attack to Bonnie's leg, which was immediately avoided by a quick step backwards from Bonnie.

"They're really something, those two." Phoebe said, the ghost of a smile appearing. She seemed to be remembering something, the feelings of nostalgia were evident upon her face. I so desperately wanted to ask her again about what happened, about the history between Bonnie and Marceline, but I stopped myself, knowing that I wouldn't get any answers.

"I really wish I was as good as them." I said, looking on as Marceline's lightning fast reflexes parried another strike.

"Well we could be if we put as much time into it as they did." Phoebe replied, not taking her eyes of the duel before them. I watched in awe as Bonnie avoided a low sweep from Marceline's blade by literally leaping into the air.

"Well maybe we should put in as much time as they did." I said, not really sure what I was saying. "We should do some extra practice together or something."

Phoebe suddenly shifted her gaze from the fight and towards me. "Are you asking me on a date?" She laughed.

I flushed red, causing Phoebe to giggle even louder, "No! Nothing like that… I just thought… we could maybe-"

"Yes, I will practice with you." She said, interrupting my stuttering. "We'll meet up after school and decide where to go then."

"A-alright." I said, trying to control my face, which was now redder than a tomato. "That sounds good."

Phoebe and I didn't say anything for the rest of the duel. We just watched as Marceline and Bonnie sparred, both sides failing to land a single strike against her opponent. It was as if the two were in some sort of perfect balance, Marceline's blinding speed and bone-crushing strength being countered with Bonnie's precision and finesse.

Eventually Billy just called off the duel, stating that I had learnt enough from the fight. I honestly hadn't learnt a single thing, there was no way in hell I was ever going to match that degree of skill anytime soon.

As soon as Marceline was changed out of her fencing gear, she left the gym, not even giving me a glance as she left, obviously eager to be as far away from Bonnie as possible. I guess a draw wasn't good enough for Marceline, you couldn't gloat about a draw.

Bonnie seemed equally as happy to be away from Marcy, although rather than leave in a hurry as the bass player had, Bonnie had just adopted an emotionless expression and wasn't talking to anyone.

It's weird how some people can change so quickly when they're around someone they have strong feelings about. Although I suppose I couldn't talk… whenever I was around Phoebe-

"See ya Finn!"

"Uh… Oh, Bye!"

-I turned into a stuttering loser. Not exactly my smoothest moment. But hey, I had a sorta, maybe date with her, right? So maybe my inability to form complete sentences is sexy… maybe.

* * *

 **Hey dudes! Sorry for not updating in a little while, I'm not going to try and come up with some half-assed excuse for why it's been longer than usual, because simply put, I don't have one, I'm just a lazy prick.**

 **So all jokes aside, I want to once again thank everyone who took the time to read the fic, I know I say this at the end of pretty much every chapter, but I really do mean it. Plus it adds to the word count to make you guys think I'm super descriptive and stuff, but let's not talk about that.**

 **Now that the story is well under way I might chuck up a poll where you guys can vote for your favorite character, the winner might get a chapter from their perspective or something cool like that. So yeah.**

 **Well anyways, thanks for reading! ~LivingTorch**


	10. Inferno

Bloodstream

Chapter Nine: Inferno

 _State-wide Fencing Tournament._

The title of the poster immediately caught my eye. It was after school, I was supposed to be meeting Phoebe outside the front gates of the school but I was sure reading this wouldn't take too long.

I got a little closer to the poster, allowing myself to read the details, I'd definitely want to tell Phoebe about this once I did meet up with her.

 _Abadeer and Co.'s State-Wide Fencing Tournament will take place on the 31st March - 1st April. To qualify you must attend a selection tournament at the nearest Ministry of Fencing qualified club to you, the top four from each tournament will be entered._

The thirty-first? That was only a couple of weeks away, I would have to hurry up and find out when those selection tournaments were pretty damn soon if I wanted to enter.

I continued to stare at the poster for a few more minutes before remembering I was supposed to be heading to the school gates. I quickly made a mental reminder to ask Coach Billy about the tournament, then I turned around and headed for the front of the school, where Phoebe would hopefully be waiting.

As I exited the main classroom block I saw her leaning up against the fence that branched off of the gates. Her ruby eyes were scanning the area for me, looking bored as she waited for me to show up.

"Hey!" I called out to her from a distance, praying to glob that my tongue would continue to function as we conversed.

Phoebe straightened up, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear as she heard me, "Hey Finn!" She said, smiling. I loved the way she smiled, it made me feel like nothing else in the world mattered as long as I could make her smile.

"So…" I said, trying very hard to avoid stuttering, "Where do you think we should go to practice?"

Phoebe put her hand to her chin and thought for a moment, "I dunno," She began, "But I was thinking that maybe we didn't need to start training _right_ away."

I raised my eyebrows, wondering what her intentions were, "So what do you have in mind then?" I asked.

"Well…" Phoebe again put her hand to her chin, I got the feeling that she wasn't actually thinking this stuff up on the spot and that she had planned to ditch the training all along. At least that's what I hoped she was doing.

"Well?" I said prompting her to continue.

"Maybe we could go to the main street and get milkshakes or something." She said quickly, "Just relax a bit before we start training you know?"

"That sounds an awful lot like a date." I jested, not really knowing what was coming out of my mouth, just doing what my gut told me.

Phoebe then did something I had never seen her do; blush. In all honesty it looked adorable, her rosy red cheeks going an even darker shade, making her ruby eyes seem all the more brighter.

"Yeah, I guess it does." She said plainly, regaining her posture. "But it'd still be cool with you right?"

"Uh, yeah, of course." I agreed.

"Great!" Phoebe's eyes lit up, a smile flourishing across her face,

"Let's start walking then!"

* * *

We arrived at the shops a few moments later, Phoebe was excitedly telling me about the owners of all the different stores. To be honest I wasn't really listening to anything that she was rambling on about, I just watched the way her lips moved as she talked, the glint of wonder in her eyes about everything she ever came across. She was just so amazing…

"...So Miguel, you met him the other day, runs Death's-" Phoebe suddenly stopped talking, her gaze freezing down one of the alleyways of the mall. "Do you know that guy Finn?"

I followed her line of sight, seeing a man with an odd yellow hat, it was Dan, the Magic Man. He was frantically beckoning for me to come over to where he was standing, obviously not wishing to draw attention from Phoebe, but failing in his endeavour. I shot him a look that told him I didn't want to be bothered right now, but he didn't seem to be getting the message.

"Wait here a second." I said to Phoebe, before walking towards where Dan seemed to be performing some kind of strange dance as he motioned for me to approach.

"What?" Phoebe asked, a puzzled look on her face, "Who is that

Guy? What's going on Finn?"

"Don't worry about it." I reassured her, hoping she wouldn't try to question me even further. "Just stay here while I talk to him, okay?"

"Okay…" Phoebe said skeptically, it was obvious that she didn't trust what was going on, but I would have to amend that later. I arrived at the alley where Dan was standing, making sure to let him know that I was pissed off.

"You have picked the worst possible moment to bo-" I began before the lunatic cut me off.

"I know this is sudden, and I said you'd only deliver once a fortnight." He began, his entire body was vibrating and he was talking incredibly fast, "But I need you to drop off this package at the usual spot, I'll give you the same cut as last time."

"No!" I exclaimed, "I'm kind of in the middle of something here and I can't have this shiz jacking it all up!" Delivering drugs alone and unidentified was one thing, but if anyone found out… especially Phoebe, it would ruin me.

"Come on, just do it, it won't take long!" Dan seemed to be getting more frantic as I declined his offers, "Just please do this."

"I said no." I finished, turning around and walking out of the alleyway to signify the end of the conversation. There was no way I was playing Dan's drug mule with Phoebe around… there was no way I would be risking everything that I had worked so hard for over my first week here… I was not going to risk this normal life.

I arrived back to where Phoebe had been waiting impatiently for me, obviously wanting to know why I had made her wait while I talked to the strange man.

"He was just one of my brother's college friends." I lied, hoping that I didn't look as uncomfortable as I felt, "Wanted to talk to me about some, er, surprise, uh, birthday party for my brother."

"Really?" Phoebe gave me a hard stare, "When's your brothers birthday?"

"Oh, uh, not for another six months, the guy had got the dates mixed up." I gave a fake laugh, hoping my story was believable enough.

"Alright then." Phoebe said, I could tell she hadn't quite accepted what I had told her, but hey, it would do for now. "Come on then, let's go get those smoothies!" She suddenly grabbed my hand, leading me towards one of the smaller shops.

The skin of my palms rubbing up against hers sent a warm feeling rushing through my body. It was like I had been out in a blizzard since I was born and had just discovered fire. I tightened my grip on Phoebe's hand, hoping that I would never have to let go.

"Here it is!" She pointed toward a small storefront with a bunch of large plastic fruits decorating its exterior. There was a small sign above the entrance that read 'Party Pat's Punch and Smoothies'.

We walked inside the store, seeing a man with a green jacket behind the counter. He looked up at us when we came inside, his expression remaining completely blank, almost like he was deep in thought and was barely acknowledging our existence.

Phoebe strode up to the counter, "I'll have the Blueberry Smash, thanks." She said, then looked towards me, "What about you, Finn?"

"Uh, I'll have one of those two, I guess." I replied.

The man behind the counter just nodded his head before beginning to chop various fruits with great speed and place them in the blender. There seemed to be rythym to the way he was working, making it seem as if he was listening to some music that only his ears could pick up.

When he was done we paid for the drinks, this time I made sure that Phoebe didn't shout me anything, I didn't want to seem like some charity case.

"That cashier was a bit weird." I noted, trying to remember if he had uttered one word in the entirety of the transaction.

"Yeah." Phoebe agreed, "He thinks he's some new-age party god or something like that, you can't deny he makes great smoothies though."

I took a sip from my cup, "These are actually quite good." I laughed, "How does a 'party god' end up becoming a smoothie maker anyways?"

"I dunno." Phoebe smiled, "I'm sure the smoothies could come in handy at his parties, giving people drinks and all that."

"I guess that would be a good skill." I said.

* * *

We walked for another ten or so minutes, drinking the smoothies and talking. Phoebe did most of the conversing, telling me about the fencing tournaments of previous years, but I didn't mind that, I liked listening to her talk about things that she loved. She was just so passionate about everything she did, and I loved that about her.

Eventually we arrived at the park where Marceline and I had spent the last week practicing for my fencing trials.

"Hey Phoebe." I said, slowing my pace.

"Yeah?" She replied, turning to face me with those beautiful ruby eyes of hers.

"Do you think we should get into our fencing training now?" I asked her, "This park seems like a pretty good place to do it."

"Oh… uh, sure!" She said, seeming to reluctantly agree.

"You don't sound that sure." I said, wondering why she didn't want to practice, she loved fencing, why would it be different now? Wait… was she blushing?

"I just thought that we could talk some more, you know." She didn't seem to be meeting my eyes. "We don't really know each other all that well and since we're in the same fencing team I figured it would be a good idea to find out some stuff about you."

Did she… no, no way… but maybe… I mean, she didn't exactly deny this was a date when I told her what it sounded like… but did that really mean what I thought it did?

"Well, uh, what do you want to know about me?" I asked her, not entirely sure about how I would go about continuing the conversation.

Phoebe seemed to be in a similar state, "You did kickboxing at your old school right? I heard you were really good at it, like _really_ good."

"I wouldn't say that…" I replied with sarcastic modesty, Phoebe giggled at that, bringing a smile to my face. "But yeah, I did kickboxing."

"So what made you change to fencing?"

I suddenly flushed red. I couldn't possibly tell her the real reason… but would I even be able to hide it from her? Marceline had easily seen through my cover-up story before.

"Well… I, uh, dunno really." I managed to stutter out, avoiding Phoebe's gaze. "Just something different I guess."

"Okay, that makes sense I guess." Phoebe said awkwardly, "I was just wondering because I ran into Marceline the other day…"

"What did she tell you?!" I exclaimed, "Whatever she said she was lying, I didn't join just because I thought you were really pretty on the first day and you kinda scrambled up my dome-piece! It was nothing like that at all, it was just because I wanted to-" Suddenly my rambling was interrupted.

Phoebe was kissing me, her lips sending waves of fiery emotion through my body. At first I was shocked that she was doing this, my mind seemed to be wondering what the hell was going on, but then suddenly my body took over.

I was kissing her back, my mouth pushing back against hers and my hands coming up to caress her rosy-red cheeks. Phoebe's own arms wrapped around my neck, pulling me closer into her.

This was nothing like I had ever felt before, the feeling of pure emotion stampeding through my conscience was more intense than any drug I had taken in the past. This was pure, there were no side effects, consequences or chemicals taking over my brain. It was just the two of us in tight embrace, all of our worries and cares evaporating like snow in an inferno as we kissed.

We pulled apart, the entire thing lasted no longer than ten seconds, but it had felt like hours had just passed around us. I stared at Phoebe, her cheeks were burning red and I could feel my own face was probably even redder.

"That was…" I began to say, trying to find a word to describe the experience; awesome, amazing, brilliant, nothing in the english language could begin to describe my feelings of euphoria.

"Sorry." Phoebe murmured, blushing even deeper, "I should have asked, I just made this awkward."

"No!" I exclaimed, "You didn't make this awkward at all."

"Really?" She asked, "Because this seems a hell of a lot awkward to me."

"Well maybe you did make it a bit awkward." I admitted, "But good awkward, like the kind of awkward you get when I cute baby does something stupid and starts crying but then you laugh but you feel bad about laughing-" I stopped myself, realizing how stupid I probably sounded. "You know what? I think this will explain it much better."

I leaned in and resumed the kiss from where we left off, Phoebe gave a soft sound of surprise as our bodies connected again, but she was quickly kissing back. I didn't know what I was feeling then, it wasn't just happiness, it was something much, much more than that, something that my sixteen year old mind couldn't explain.

It was something that I had lived for years without, but now that I had it in my grasp, I would never let go, lest my heart be ripped out with it.

* * *

 **The fluff has begun!**

 **Would just like to say that this is my first time writing this sort of thing into a story and I am fairly sure I didn't do such a great job of it. But hey, at least it's finally there now, and there's a hell of a lot more to ensue.**

 **So yeah, let me know what you think of the fic so far in the reviews, as always any feedback is greatly appreciated. Also, one other thing, the poll for your favorite character is now up on my profile, so make sure to check that out and vote. I will be doing a special chapter centered around the character with the most votes somewhere down the line.**

 **Thanks for Reading! ~LivingTorch**


	11. Breaking Barriers

Bloodstream

* * *

Chapter Ten: Breaking Barriers

The next day I gathered with the usual gang at the cafeteria, taking my regular place next to Beemo who seemed to be getting used to my presence now that we were a week and a half into the year. And by getting used to my presence, I mean he no longer looked like he was going to get up and sprint away from me in fear. It was a start I guess.

Across from me sat Phoebe. I remembered the events of the day before, how we had kissed at the park… it had felt so good having her body intertwined with mine, it gave off this wonderful feeling of warmth, I just felt at ease with life.

Occasionally Phoebe would catch me staring into her fiery eyes and we would make eye contact for a moment. Though it would only last a few seconds before we both quickly averted our gazes, deep blushes forming on our faces.

I didn't think that Bonnie noticed anything going on between us, she was too busy talking about the upcoming fencing tournament I had read about on the poster yesterday. But Beemo however seemed to be picking up on our awkward exchanges and repeatedly gave me suspicious glances throughout the lunch.

Eventually the bell sounded, signalling that it was time to go to our final class of the day. Beemo and Bonnie left quickly, eager to get to whatever it was they had next. All that was left at our table was Phoebe and I.

She gave me an awkward glance before speaking directly to me for the first time since the day before. "Hey." Was all she said, I couldn't blame her, I was also at a complete loss for words.

"Uh, hey." I replied, feeling like a needed to say something, lest the situation become even more awkward than it already was. Why did this stuff have to be so glob damn complicated?

Yesterday it had seemed all too easy, we had kissed for the better part of a quarter hour, eventually breaking apart, the both of us rather speechless over what had just occurred. Eventually I had asked her what this all meant, what it meant about us… but of course Phoebe then had to give the answer of 'I don't know, I've never done this kind of thing before'. That made two of us.

We didn't really have much more conversation after that point, we just walked away from the park together, I had managed to summon up the courage to hold her hand as we moved towards our homes. She seemed to form a faint smile when I had done that… she was beautiful when she smiled.

When we came to a turn-off where we had to go our separate ways, we had both said goodbye to each other, followed by a rather awkward hug just before we left. I had watched her go for a moment, stunned at the events of the afternoon, shocked at what had just happened to me.

"Finn?" Phoebe was waving her hand in front of my face, trying to grab my attention.

"Oh, uh, sorry." I stuttered, "I kinda drifted off for a second." That was the longest sentence I had said to her all day.

"I saw that." Phoebe remarked sarcastically, "So…" Her voice trailed off and I started to wonder if we were ever going to get out of this awkward phase in which our conversations consisted of us stuttering at each other.

"So?" I prompted her to continue.

"Well, I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out after school and…" She paused for a moment, finding whatever it was she was about to say next rather difficult to get out. "... talk about yesterday and stuff."

"Um, that'd be great." I said quickly, "Well… we better get to class, we don't want to be late."

"Heh, yeah." Phoebe agreed.

I scooped up my bag, trying in vain to disguise my blushing cheeks.

"See ya." I said over my shoulder, before walking off without waiting for a response. I really didn't want to battle out any more words.

I continued to move towards my class, my thoughts still racing, replaying the amazing kiss from yesterday over and over like some broken record… only this was something I wanted to listen to.

"Sooooooo…" Marceline suddenly appeared at my shoulder, her usual sly grin plastered across her face. "What's goin' on between you and Phoebe."

"What!? Nothing!" I exclaimed, trying very badly to bluff my way out of the situation.

"Pfft." Marceline scoffed, "I saw the way you two were looking at each other at lunch."

"You were spying on me!" I shook my head, wondering why the hell she would want to listen in on my life.

"Actually I was spying on Bonnie and happened to notice you, but that's not the point." Marceline explained, not really helping to mend my confusion. "So what's going on between you two."

"Er… we kissed." I mumbled as quietly as I could.

"I don't know if I heard you quite correctly." Marceline began, her voice drenched in sarcasm, "Could you repeat that for me?"

"We kissed!" I yelled a little louder than I had intended.

"Holy shit…" Marcy look legitimately astonished, "You aren't as big of a loser as I thought you were. Come on, give me all the juicy details."

"I'd really rather we didn't discuss this here." I said, taking notice of the other students walking to their classes.

"Aw, alright." Marceline pouted, "But do you wanna hang after school or something?"

"I kinda already said I was hanging out with Phoebe." As I said it I saw a flicker of flash over Marcy's face, was that… disappointment? "You can come too of you want." I offered, not wanting to make her feel like I was ditching her permanently.

"Nah…" She replied, "I don't want to get in the way of your hot date, Finny." She jested, giving me a playful punch on the shoulder.

"Screw you." I replied jokingly, although I couldn't stop myself from blushing at the remark the raven-haired girl had made.

"So I guess I'll see you tomorrow then." She said, beginning to turn down another corridor.

"Yeah, maybe we'll hang out then." I agreed, walking off towards my fifth period class.

* * *

I was sitting up against the old fig tree at the park, Phoebe was about a foot to my left, also leaning up against its solid trunk. It was rather secluded at the base of the tree, its gnarly and twisting branches snaked around us, obscuring my view of the rest of the park.

I gave a quick glance towards Phoebe, I knew she had brought up the idea of hanging out in order to talk about what had happened yesterday, but we really were not doing a lot of talking. To be honest I didn't know if that was a good or bad thing, I doubted I would have said much even if she did attempt to strike up conversation… so here we were, wordlessly lying up against the old fig, just thinking about what _could_ be said.

We can't keep doing this… we're never going to get anywhere if we just clam up whenever we get close to each other. It needed to stop. I got up from the tree, searching for two decently sized sticks around the park. Phoebe gave me a questioning look, but didn't move to stop me.

I discovered a sturdy looking branch that had fallen from a nearby oak, I put the thing beneath my foot and grabbed either end with my arms, with a hard pull the stick snapped in two.

"Finn?" Phoebe had gotten up from the tree and was walking toward the place where I had acquired the two sticks. "What are you doing?"

"Catch." I replied simply, passing one of the sticks to her.

"What are these for?" The fiery-haired girl asked, staring at the brown object I had placed in her hands.

"Fencing practice, figured we needed to get some in if we wanted to be as good as Marceline and Bonnie." I replied, receiving a blank stare from Phoebe, "Although, if you're too afraid we don't have to." I taunted.

"Oh, you're on!" She yelled, placing her half of the branch in front of her as if it were some deadly weapon. I mimicked the pose, staring straight into her eyes.

I remembered when Marceline and I had done this the week before, it had been amazing to just lose myself in the near-endless training. Even though I had lost pretty much every time, it still brought my thoughts back down to earth. I figured getting past our awkward phase would be easiest done with what we do best, for her it was fencing itself, and for me… it was just the feeling of having a plan, knowing what I needed to do next that made me love sport so much.

"En Garde!" Phoebe called, dashing toward me with her wooden weapon thrusting out towards my chest, she most definitely was not taking this easy.

I brought my weapon up to meet hers, the sound of wood hitting wood echoing around the park like a thunderstrike. I then transferred the momentum of the parry into a riposte, aiming for the inside of her sword arm.

Phoebe leapt backwards, giving her a little more time to deflect my counter-attack with a parry of her own. She then raised her blade and sent an arcing strike toward my right shoulder, it was faster than her previous strike and caught me a little of guard. I tried raising my makeshift sword to parry but was too slow, catching the full force of the blade.

"Ow…" I grunted under my breath, ignoring the slight pain that was now buzzing by my neck.

Phoebe suddenly stopped and lowered her sword, "Are you okay?" She asked, looking genuinely worried.

I just gave a grin, "You'll have to try harder than that to injure me!" I joked, thrusting my sword toward Phoebe's left flank.

She parried the strike, breaking out into a smile of her own, "Good, I thought you were about to wimp out on me."

We continued our clash and in what felt like seconds to me an entire half hour went by. Sweat was clinging to my forehead and I could feel my body telling me it was time to call it quits, but I would've kept going until I dropped.

Phoebe made another arcing slash towards my off-hand, I moved my own sword to meet hers with as much force as possible, attempting to smash her own weapon well out of the way.

 _Thwack_

Both of our branches-turned-blades snapped under the impact, already worn from the intense fight they had been through. Splinters of wood exploded through the air, getting stuck in our clothes and hair.

I dropped my destroyed weapon, putting my hands on my knees and attempting to catch my breath, "I guess that'll be the end of it for today." I said plainly.

Phoebe laughed, "Yeah…" She agreed, "You definitely look like you could use the rest." She added jokingly.

"Pfft." I scoffed, shrugging off the comment, "You don't exactly look that awesome either." I was lying of course, she looked very awesome. Her fiery hair seemed to spark as it clung to her back, the bits of wood giving the appearance of charcoal… she was beautiful even when she was covered in splintered wood.

Suddenly Phoebe's eyes seemed to darken a bit and a soft blush broke out across her face, "Uh, so what does this all mean… you know, about us?"

I could feel my own face turn just as red as hers, I was ready to give an awkward 'uh, I don't know' but something in me made me catch myself. This is your chance Finn, I thought to myself, you need to end all the awkwardness between you and get right to the real question.

"Well…" I began, doubts of whether this was the right thing to do began to form in my head, but I brushed them aside. "It would be pretty math if, uh, you would maybe be my girlfriend and stuff?"

I watched as her cheeks somehow flush a deeper red. Shit, had I just made everything between us a billion zillion times more complicated than before?

"That would be awesome." Phoebe replied so softly that I almost didn't hear her utter the words. To my surprise I didn't feel shocked at her agreement, I didn't even feel like anything had changed drastically between us from the day before… all we had done was put a label on the feelings we had for each other… the feelings of being boyfriend and girlfriend, but for whatever reason I still felt a warm feeling rise up in my stomach.

"So what do we do now?" I asked her, staring deep into her wonderful ruby eyes.

"Some of this I guess." She replied mysteriously.

"Some of what-" I was interrupted as Phoebe brushed my blonde hair away from my face and kissed me.

* * *

 **Here's the tenth chapter for you guys!**

 **The fic is now well under way, (about a quaterish complete now) and I know there has been a distinct lack of terrible things to happen to Finn over the last few chapters, and since we all know that if nothing horrible happens to our main characters the story grows rather stale, so you can expect some sweet drama to be tossed in somewhere in the next 1-3 chapters.**

 **Also I know I said the poll for favorite character had been put up when I released the last chapter, but apparently I had forgotten to make it visible on my profile... whoops, special thanks to MusicMan564 for pointing that out to me. So make sure to go and check that out, whichever character gets the most votes will have a special chapter dedicated to them... probably describing a flashback to earlier days or something cool like that.**

 **As always, thanks for reading! ~LivingTorch**


	12. Plan of Attack

Bloodstream

* * *

Chapter Eleven: Plan of Attack

"Finn!"

"Ugh…" I peeled open my eyes, wondering what the hell was making all this noise.

"Finn!" It was Jake, calling into my bedroom from somewhere in the house, I was still too sleepy to identify exactly where.

Deciding I better get up and see what my crazy step-brother was going on about, I mentally lifted myself from the embrace of the sleep, pulling my still tired body out of the sheets. I quickly tossed a shirt over my bare chest and then left the room, seeing Jake in the middle of the lounge performing what seemed to be some incredibly strange dance.

"What's got you all excited, man?" I asked him, absently rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

"Check these babies out!" He exclaimed, slapping six small pieces of card down onto the kitchen counter. From where I was standing they looked like some sort of ticket for something.

I got a little closer, lifting one of the tickets off of the counter and beginning to read it aloud; "The bearer of this ticket will be granted return access to Brighton Beach." I studied the rest of the card, noticing that the train would leave saturday morning at ten am and would drop us back in Ooo at eleven pm the following day. "Where the hell did you get money for these?" I asked.

"I didn't! We're still poor as a penguin!" Jake exclaimed, not seeming to care that we didn't have much money.

"Then how did you get the tickets?" Sometimes my step-brother was a very difficult person to talk to.

"I stole them." He said with a completely blank expression. Upon seeing the shocked look on my face he started cracking up laughing, "Nah I'm just messing around with ya, I won them in this magazine competition, see?" He pulled a magazine cutting from out of his pocket and offered it to me.

I ignored his outstretched hand, deciding it was time to point out the obvious flaw in my step brother's plan, "So you have the tickets to the beach, but do you have any money for a place to stay?"

"Hmm…" Jake scratched his chin, "I never really thought about that one… hang on." He suddenly bounded into his room.

I could hear many loud crashes and bangs as he seemed to search for something. Eventually he came out of the room with three bundles of some sort of silky material.

"Two man tents!" He said proudly, "And dad said I would never use them, pfft, look who's laughing now!"

I couldn't help but chuckle at Jake's enthusiasm, his boundless energy always made me smile. "So who are you inviting along?"

"Well I thought this would be a great opportunity for you to met Rainy." Jake explained, "And since there would be another three tickets leftover after you, Rainy and I are taken care of, you could invite some of your friends along!"

"Really!?" I exclaimed. Man this would be awesome… I wonder if Phoebe would want to go, wouldn't that be a great way to spend time with her. I could just imagine it already, the two of us sitting up on the beach, watching as the waves crawled up the shoreline… it would be awesome.

And not to mention all the exploring we could do! Brighton Beach was supposed to be really secluded, blocked off on most of it's sides by high cliffs and dense forests… it would make for some pretty math adventures.

"So, what do ya say, dude?" Jake asked me, grinning from ear to ear. "Do you wanna go?"

"Hell yeah I do!" I had picked up on his enthusiasm, punching the air as I spoke.

"That's the spirit, homie!" He said, "Now at school today make sure that all your friends are okay with this, give them my number and tell their parents to call me and shiz, I don't want to be charged with kidnapping again."

"Again?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Long story." Jake replied, not explaining any further. "Just make sure you get their parents to call me, okay?"

"Sure thing, Jake."

* * *

I walked into the cafeteria after gym class, still panting slightly from the running Coach had made us do. Some oxymoron had decided to try and cut out half the original run by hiding in some bushes, Billy had caught him of course and then made us all do an extra four laps of the school field.

I looked towards our table in the corner, seeing that everyone else was already sitting down and eating. It really was a good coincidence that Jake had three extra tickets for my three newfound friends… I wasn't entirely sure if Beemo would be too psyched to go, but I would make sure he had fun. I would try to anyways.

"Hey guys!" I greeted them and took my seat next to Beemo.

"Hey Finn." Phoebe replied, the awkwardness we had felt from the day before seemed to have disappeared almost completely. We were making progress!

I looked over toward Bonnie, who seemed to be fiddling around with some sort of machine.

"What are you doing?" I asked her, trying to get a good view of the odd contraption. She hadn't seemed to have heard me however, and continued to tinker with the object. "Bonnie?" I called out again, trying to get her attention.

"Huh?" She looked up from her work, "Oh, sorry. It's my I.T. project… I'm supposed to figure out what the hell this thing is and how to use it…" She paused for a moment, striking the strange device a few times with a screwdriver. "But it looks like it was made twenty years ago! It's ancient!"

We all laughed at that, I guess there were some things that Bonnie wasn't good at, and trying to figure out what machines produced in the nineties did seemed to be one of them.

Suddenly Beemo cleared his throat, it seemed rather uncharacteristic of him to engage in conversation when he didn't have to and it took us all by surprise. Noticing us staring at him, the smaller boy seemed to be regretting his decision to speak, but he continued anyway.

"I was just thinking that we haven't really done anything as a group this year yet." He explained, "And that maybe we should get together on the weekend or something."

I suddenly remembered the tickets Jake had won, "That reminds me!" I exclaimed, pulling out the three spare pieces of card. "My step-brother won these train tickets to Brighton Beach and he told me he could invite three of my friends along to camp there over the weekend." I passed the tickets out to each person in the group. "What do ya say?"

"It sounds exciting!" Beemo exclaimed, catching me by surprise, I thought he would be the least enthused by the idea.

"Count me in." Phoebe said, placing her ticket into her bag.

Our eyes then turned to Bonnie who was still reading over the details of the ticket.

"I really would go…" She began, "But I have a science exam on monday and my parents want me to study over the weekend." She handed me back the ticket.

"Oh, that's okay I guess." I said, wondering what I would do with the one remaining ticket, maybe Jake would have a friend that he'd want to tag along? I shrugged, placing the card back in my pocket.

"Aw… we'll miss you there Bonnie." Phoebe said, "Are you sure you wouldn't be able to go?"

"Yeah, it wouldn't be as fun without you…" Beemo agreed, looking up at Bonnie with his blue eyes.

"I have to put my studies first." Bonnie said with a sense of finality, "But make sure to take heaps of pictures so you can tell me all about it when you guys get back!"

"I'm sure Beemo'll take plenty!" Phoebe replied.

"Well I do need to take some wildlife shots for my photography class…" He said quietly, "I guess I could do that."

"Alright guys, here's my step-brothers number." I said, writing down a series of digits on two of the cafeteria napkins and handing it to Phoebe and Beemo, "Give him a call and he'll tell you all the details."

Suddenly the bell went off. I said my goodbyes to the group and scooped up my bag, heading out toward my fifth period class.

* * *

"How's it going Finny."

I had been walking home from school for about ten minutes before Marceline had appeared behind me. It caused me to jump a bit, but by now I had gotten sort of used to her random appearances.

"Uh, alright I guess." I answered, ignoring her use of that crappy nickname she had come up with. "How's things on your end, _Marcy_." I made sure to pronounce each syllable of the name with distinction.

"That's no fair…" She pouted, "Only I get to call you dumb nicknames, that's the way this works. I'm the name-caller and you are the name-callee."

"Yeah, whatever." I replied. "I'll call you whatever I want, whenever

Want and there's nothing you can do to stop me!"

"Oh really?" Marceline gave a sly grin, "I could tell everyone is the school you go out with Phoebe… you know there are quite a few guys I know of that wouldn't take much of a liking to that."

"What? How did you know that? I only told you we kissed!"

I exclaimed. How the hell did she figure that out? Had she been spying on us at the park or something?

"I didn't know!" She said, beginning to crack up laughing, "But I do now!"

I flushed red as I realised the bass player had just played me… how did I not see through that? There was no way she could have known.

"Anyways…" Marceline sighed, her laughter dying down, "You got any plans for the weekend?"

"Oh, yes actually!" I replied, remembering the train ticket in my back pocket, I couldn't believe I had completely forgotten about Marcy.

"You seem excited about whatever it is you're doing." She said, then leaned in and began to whisper in my ear, "You gonna move up a few bases with Phoebe?"

"No!" Why was Marceline so damn good at pissing me off? I started to wonder if inviting Marcy along would be such a good idea… but no, she was my friend, and I owed her this much for helping me out with the fencing trials.

I pulled the ticket out of my back pocket and handed it to her. "I'm going camping with Jake and a few other friends over the weekend, you wanna come?"

For some odd reason Marceline actually seemed shocked at my offer, "Really?" She asked.

"Umm, no… I just gave you that ticket so you could make a paper plane" I said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Shut up…" Marceline replied, punching me playfully on the shoulder, "Yeah, I'd love to go."

"Sweet! Just head down to Ooo station at ten tomorrow morning, you don't need to bring any food or anything, we've got that covered." I said, still wondering why Marceline was so surprised at my asking for her to come.

"Wait." She said as I was about to turn off onto my street, "Is Bonnie going to be there?"

"No, she isn't." I replied plainly, "Why is it that you two hate each other so much anyway?"

Marceline paused for a moment and stared down at the ground, "We used to be close… then I did some stuff and she did some stuff… and now we're not." With that the raven-haired girl turned and walked quickly away from me. Her eyes remaining downcast until she disappeared around the corner.

All this secrecy was starting to really eat at me… what in the name of glob had happened that no one would tell me about? It couldn't have been that bad, could it? Marceline and Bonnie both seemed so nice, they had been so welcoming to me on my first day.

Whatever had happened that had driven the two girls to hate each other so much… I needed to know, and when I did, I would try to fix their broken friendship.

* * *

 **Yeah I know this was a rather boring chapter, but hey I couldn't just magically teleport them to beach world... this isn't the regular AT universe.**

 **So... we get a few more hints to Bonnie and Marcy's past, so that was cool I guess. I really do want to tell you all my master plan for the fic, but you know, pacing and spoilers and stuff like that. I suppose we'll get there when we get there.**

 **Well anyways, thanks to all those who have participated in my poll, I won't reveal who is in the lead as of yet, but you all know that it is my second favorite character in the fic, if that's any hint at all. Ahh, the joy of knowing things that no one else does.**

 **Well that's enough from me, thanks for reading! ~LivingTorch.**


	13. Stars and Sunsets

Bloodstream

* * *

Chapter Twelve: Stars and Sunsets

Jake and I had arrived at Ooo station a full hour before the train was scheduled to depart, this was mainly to ensure we had all the times right and if anything managed to go to shit, we would have some time to spare. Luckily, everything seemed to be in order as we checked our tickets over with the receptionist, so we went down onto one of the benches and sat, waiting for the rest of our crew to arrive.

I honestly could barely contain my excitement; thoughts of Phoebe and I sitting romantically on the beach flashed through my head. I could almost feel the butterflies of anticipation fluttering about in my stomach.

It would also be pretty cool to get a bit closer to Beemo, maybe find out what his story in all this is… I didn't really know much about the blue-haired boy to be honest, he didn't talk much. I just knew from Bonnie that he was super into photography, something I knew would come in handy on the camping trip.

Speaking of Beemo, he seemed to be on to the fact that Phoebe and I were dating. We hadn't actually told anyone yet, other than that run in with Marceline that had occurred the previous day, but I knew that we probably should… I wonder what Jake would say, he'd probably think it was cool, he thought everything was cool.

"Jake!" A female voice called out from across the train station.

I looked up, seeing a blonde girl of around twenty-two who I assumed must be Jake's girlfriend, Rainy.

She had strange highlights in her hair that gave off a sort of rainbow effect, they were pretty cool I guess, if not a bit different.

"Hey Rainy!" Jake greeted, giving his girlfriend a hug, after breaking apart he pointed towards me, "This is my little step-bro I've been telling you about!" He enthused, "He's a pretty swell dude."

"Nice to meet you, Finn!" She smiled, "If you live up to half of the reputation Jake's given you, I'm sure we'll be great friends."

I felt a little awkward that Jake had talked me up so much, yet I knew absolutely nothing about Rainy. I guess I would have to learn some stuff while we were out camping.

The next person to arrive was Marceline, who seemed to materialise out of nowhere above Jake's shoulder.

"Hey Finny." She grinned, a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. "Hey Finny's relatives." Her grin turned into a sly smile as she realised the fright she had given Jake.

"Uhh, hey…" Jake said, "You must be Marceline."

"The one and only." Marcy replied, moving to sit down on the bench beside me. "So when's this old train thing, getting here anyways?"

"About fifteen minutes." I said after checking the time on my phone.

"Aww, can't you make it come any faster?" She pouted, staring at me with big round eyes.

"What do you think?" I asked her sarcastically, "Besides, we have to wait for the others."

"You haven't told me who these 'others' are yet." She scanned the station, looking for anyone she might recognise from the school.

I sighed, she never did stop talking did she? "Just Beemo and Phoebe."

"So…" She eyed me up, her dark pupils gazing upon me intently, "Why didn't you invite Bonnie anyways? I thought you two were pretty close, plus she's part of the same group everyone else you invited is in."

Should I tell her the truth? That I had only given her the ticket because Bonnie couldn't go? No… that would shatter her… that look she had gotten when I invited her yesterday… I couldn't destroy that.

"I just didn't think she would be into this sort of thing, ya know?" I lied, hoping that would be enough to satisfy Marcy's curiosity.

"Yeah, I guess." She agreed, "She isn't really the outdoorsy type."

Soon after Phoebe arrived, she was trailing a small suitcase behind her, increasing her pace as she saw me waiting.

"Hey Finn!" She said excitedly, wrapping her arms around me. Well I guess that's one way to let everyone know you're going out.

"Hey." I replied, returning the warm hug Phoebe had given me. As we broke apart I saw Marceline with that sly grin plastered onto her face. "Don't say anything." I said, annoyedly.

"I wouldn't dream of it." She grinned, "Just carry on with the love-making, I won't interrupt."

Both Phoebe and I blushed at her words, luckily I didn't have to think of some witty reply as Beemo picked that moment to show up. He seemed to be in a bit of a hurry, carrying a bag that seemed to be almost as large as he was. What the hell could he have in there that took up so much space?

"What's with the giant luggage?" I asked the smaller boy, still eying up the massive bag.

"Camera equipment." Beemo mumbled, seeming to be quite embarrassed. "You wouldn't understand…"

"You are probably right on that one." I replied, I didn't know the first thing about cameras, I could barely even operate the one on my phone. "Anyways…" I continued, "Everybody is here now."

"Oh really?" Marceline spoke, voice doused in sarcasm, "I honestly forgot how to count to four, thankyou very much for helping me out with that, Finny."

I could feel myself go red as even Phoebe started laughing along at Marceline's mockery of me- Beemo had managed to suppress his giggling, but I could tell it was barely contained. Why did I even hang out with these people?

Suddenly I heard the sound of something vibrating the metal tracks, glad to be able to change the subject I noted, "Hey, I think the train is coming." The moment I looked at Marceline I knew that my attempt was unsuccessful.

"And that's two outta two for Captain Obvious!" She half-yelled, a wicked grin plastered across her face. Despite the fact that this was yet another one of Marcy's jokes made at my expense I couldn't help myself but laugh along with it.

"You're a twat." I said, trying to sound serious despite my inane smile.

"I try my best." She replied. I really couldn't ever get one over that girl, could I?

* * *

We had arrived at the Brighton Beach station just as the sun had begun to dip over the horizon. It was lucky that the beach was just a fifteen minute walk from the station, otherwise we would have been stumbling along in the dark in a desperate attempt to get to our camping grounds.

I was tired and stiff from being in the train for such a long time, I think we all were- judging from the yawns and stretches that were made from my friends as we made the descent through a small forest and down onto the beach.

Phoebe looked kinda cute when she yawned… not that I would ever say that out loud, _especially_ with Marceline around to hear it. She'd hold that over me for years.

"Alright!" Jake yelled enthusiastically as his bare feet met the soft sand of the beach, still warm from the sun's rays. "We're finally here! I'm finally away from uni and my job and all of that boring crap! I'm gonna have so much fun!"

Rainy laughed at Jake's excitement, "Well your fun can wait till later." She said, tucking a lock of blonde hair behind her ear, "We need to set up our tents before it gets dark."

"Oh, right!" Jake tossed his pack off his shoulders and began to rummage through it, pulling out an assortment of objects that really didn't belong at the beach- he had brought a toaster, for glob's sake.

Suddenly the rummaging came to a halt and Jake held in his arms the three bundles of fabric. "Tents." He said simply, tossing one of them to the ground before facing Finn, "One for the guys…" He threw another one of the bundles toward Finn, "And one for the ladies…" He threw the last bundle toward Marceline, who expertly caught it in one hand.

Suddenly I felt a tugging at my shirt, "Uh, not to be rude…" Beemo began, "But I don't see how we are supposed to set up these tents with no poles to keep them upright."

Dammit Jake… In his excitement he must have forgotten to pack the bloody poles. I turned around, seeing that Phoebe and Marceline were staring at the pile of fabric in confusion, confirming that they too had realised my brother's mistake.

"Well, uh, sorry guys…" Jake announced, scratching his yellow hair as he spoke, "But it seems that I've forgotten a rather important ingredient of the tent making process." He poked at the rather sad looking would-be tent with his foot. "So I guess we're gonna sleep under the stars tonight, so let's just pray to mother nature and hope to glob it doesn't rain."

Eh, I could think of worse things than sleeping out in the wilderness. Besides, stars were romantic- anyone who had ever seen a movie knew that… and he might get another chance to advance his relationship with Phoebe under the hypnotising light that the stars gave out.

* * *

Soon enough, we were all sprawled out across the beach- the sun had just disappeared for the day, its light barely reaching the edge of the horizon. It had set over the beach, something that Beemo believed to be absolutely amazing and he had spent the sunset rushing around in a panic, trying to capture it using every setting that his camera possessed.

It was kinda funny to see the little tech wiz run around with equipment that was almost as large as him, but nevertheless I admired his passion for photography, he had developed this glint in his eye that told me that even if he knew how funny he looked with the huge camera in his small hands, he wouldn't care- he was doing what he loved and that was all that mattered.

As I sat back and watched the first stars slowly begin to blink into existence, I wondered if I had that glint in my own eyes when I was kickboxing- or as I did nowadays, fencing. I tried to imagine what I might look like while I was in combat, but the task proved impossible. It was strange to think of myself from the perspective of somebody else…

Suddenly I felt the presence of someone rather close to me, I shifted my gaze from the sky and my eyes locked with Phoebe's, their brilliant ruby colour never failing to knot my stomach and leave me at a loss for words.

"What were you thinking about?" She asked innocently, her hand shifting slightly closer to mine- it wasn't much of a movement, but enough to make my heart flutter in anticipation.

"Oh, nothing really." I said, studying the flecks of orange in her that were scattered about her irises, "Why do you ask?"

"You just seemed really deep in thought, looking up at the stars and all." She replied.

We sat like that in silence for a moment, just staring at each other, wondering what to say. I took those moment to watch as her fiery red hair seemed to come alive in the gentle onshore breeze. I saw the way her arms instinctively wrapped around her stomach as she attempted to keep warm. She was perfect. I never wanted her to leave me.

"Do you know any of the constellations?" Phoebe suddenly asked, breaking the silence- it hadn't been awkward for some strange reason, in fact it was rather… comforting.

My gaze turned back toward the sky, mostly to find a constellation to point out, but also to hide my tears of nostalgia that threatened to well up in my eyes.

My mother had taught me a few, we would sit outside on our porch and she would tell me how the stars would all join together and form special pictures. When I was young I thought that was ridiculous, I just looked up at the stars and saw an unorganised mess of light. How could anyone make images out of that?

But as my mother pointed out constellation after constellation, I began to see beauty in the chaos. I stared up in wonder as I thought about the people all those hundreds of years ago trying to make sense out of all that light, grouping the sparkling flecks into unlikely images.

But that was before- no! I scolded myself for allowing my mind to drift back to the past. I was in the here and now, with the beautiful sky right above me and an even more beautiful girl beside me.

"You see that one up there?" I said pointing towards a groups of stars, when Phoebe nodded her head, I continued. "That's the chained maiden."

I looked back toward Phoebe who was staring at the chained maiden with a look of wonder in her eyes… I wondered if that was how I looked to my mother all those years ago.

"Who chained her?"

I was about to remind Phoebe that the stories behind the constellations were just myths and legends, but looking at the spark in her eyes- that spark of passion that I had seen when Beemo was taking pictures of the sunset, I decided to just tell the story without ruining that spark.

"Her mother." I said, watching as Phoebe's eyes widened in disbelief. "You see, her mother, Cassiopeia, claimed that she was the most beautiful being in all of creation- this angered the greek god Poseidon, who created the ferocious sea monster, Cetus."

"Why was Poseidon mad?"

"Because he had created the sea nymphs, creatures that he believed were the most beautiful beings in creation." I explained, "He was mad that Cassiopeia, had proclaimed herself more beautiful and so he threatened to order Cetus to ravage the coast of Cassiopeia's country unless she chained up her beautiful daughter, Andromeda as a sacrifice to the sea monster."

"And she actually did it?" She looked shocked, despite the fact that this was just a myth. When she saw my nodding she continued, "So what happened? Did she die?"

"No." I said simply, smiling as I saw the look of anticipation in Phoebe's eyes, "A hero named Perseus turned Cetus to stone with the head of medusa, he then took Andromeda to be his wife and they all lived happily ever after."

"Huh." Phoebe said simply.

"What?" I raised an eyebrow, "Don't you like a happy ending?"

"No- it's just, it was all so easy." She explained, "Hero shows up, hero slays monster, everyone is happy."

"What's wrong with easy?" I questioned.

"Nothing…" She sighed, "It just doesn't seem all that… real. You know what I mean?"

I nodded, pondering what Phoebe had just said. Was an easy happy ending really all that hard to find? I mean- my life had been pretty shitty but I always told myself it was just a rough patch, all the heroes in books and movies had rough patches, that's what made them exciting. But did a simple resolution to one's problems really not exist?

"Hey."

I jumped with fright as Marceline seemingly materialised between Phoebe and I. "If you two lovebirds are done, then follow me- I've got a game for us all to play."

* * *

 **Okay, I know you are probably pissed that I ditched the story for like three months or something- and I don't blame you, but the important thing is I'm back right? (Please don't kill me.)**

 **Anyways, with my coming back from the dead I decided to celebrate with an unnecessarily long chapter, so that's cool I guess. Also remember to vote on the pole for your favorite character, it gives me an idea of who you want to see more of and who I probably need to add a bit more meat to in terms of personality and appearances.**

 **Thanks for reading! ~LivingTorch (Yes, yes, I know, I'm an asshole)**


	14. The Light That Blinds Us

Bloodstream

* * *

Chapter Thirteen: The Light That Blinds Us

"You mean you want us to go out in those woods at _this_ time of night?" Jake asked, looking horrified, I couldn't help but silently agree with him- although I wouldn't voice that opinion out loud, I knew what Marcy was like with calling me out on being afraid.

"Yes." The raven haired girl replied, "But don't worry, one of us gets a torch." She smiled, turning on said torch and making what looked like a bat signal by shining the torch on her hand and letting the shadow form on a tree.

"But what if one of us gets separated from the group and we can't find them?" Jake pestered, the question sounding more like an excuse to not go, rather than an actual concern for our safety.

"If you think you are lost, just scream as loud as you can." She explained, "These woods are pretty small, someone'll be bound to hear you…" She paused, turning the torch on beneath her chin, "Or _something._ " I smiled as I saw Jake practically shiver with fright.

"I dunno, Marceline." Phoebe began, "It's dark and one of us could be easily injured on a root or something."

"Pfft…" Marceline scoffed, much to Phoebe's annoyance. "Just be careful where you step and you'll be fine. Besides, since when did a few rolled ankles hurt anyone?"

"I agree with Marceline, this sounds fun." Rainy chimed in, "It'll be exciting, something different that can allow us to go home with a story to tell." She turned to Jake, "Come on, Jake, it'll be great."

He groaned, "I still don't like this idea…" He shifted his gaze to Marceline, "What's this game again?"

She rolled her eyes at my yellow-haired brother, "How many times do I have to explain it?" Upon seeing that Jake was not going to reply she just grunted and launched into her fourth description of the rules. "It's called spotlight. One of us holds a torch and has to walk around searching for the others, when the torch bearer thinks they have found one of the hiders they must shine their torch over them and yell 'spotlight'. Pretty simple."

"Well…" Jake scratched his head in thought, "I say we put it to vote, that way we can decide fairly whether or not this game is safe enough."

"Hm, fair enough." Marceline replied, "Obviously, I'm voting that we play."

"I say it's too scar- I mean dangerous." Jake quickly corrected himself.

"I agree with Jake." Phoebe said seriously, "If one of us gets hurt it'll ruin the rest of the trip for them."

Rainy then chimed in, "I think it'll be fun, and as long as we set a few boundaries it'll ensure that no one gets lost. I'm in." She paused for a moment, noticing Beemo sitting on the beach and sifting through photos on his camera. "What do you think?"

There was a moment of silence before Beemo realised he was being talked to, "Oh, uh- I don't really mind. It's cool either way."

"So that leaves you, Finn." Phoebe said turning to me. "You get to decide whether or not we are playing this game."

"Oh, I dunno." I said, looking at Phoebe. I wanted to play the game, it sounded like fun, but I agreed with Phoebe's point that it was fairly likely that one of us would end up with a twisted ankle. Just as I was about to voice my opinion Marceline spoke up.

"Come on, Finny." She said with a teasing grin, "You're not gonna chicken out, are you? I thought you weren't afraid of anything."

Phoebe shot Marceline a glare, she had picked up on the fact that the raven haired girl was trying to manipulate me into playing- I had too of course, but that didn't stop me from immediately changing my mind. I wasn't gonna let Marceline get another one over me.

I met the bass player's amused stare with one of my own, "I say that we should play." I said confidently, trying to ignore Phoebe's astonishment at me actually agreeing with Marceline. "But," I paused, "We should make things a little more interesting."

"How so?" Marceline said with a devilish smile, one that seemed to bring out my inner demon.

"Finn…" Phoebe began, "No one's gonna think any less of you if you don't want to play."

I barely even acknowledged Phoebe's words, my cocky attitude too far gone to back out now. "Just between you and me," I began, looking toward Marceline, "Whoever gets caught first has to dive head first into the ocean."

"But it's freezing!" Jake pointed out.

"And that's what makes it all the more fun." Marceline countered, "Well that settles it then, we're gonna be playing spotlight." She suddenly tossed the torch toward Jake, "Since you're the oldest, you can be the seeker, now give as sixty seconds!"

With that Marceline and I immediately turned and dashed off toward the forest, a rather annoyed Phoebe quickly following suit- I would have to smooth things over with her later, but for now, all that mattered was kicking Marceline's ass.

* * *

I grinned, giving myself a mental pat on the back as congratulations for finding such an amazing hiding spot. There was no way Marceline could have possibly bested me.

I was perched on a rather thin branch that swayed dangerously in the wind, but I knew it would hold- these trees had to endure much worse during storms. Now I know, up in a tree wasn't exactly the most original hiding place, in fact, I had set off planning not to use a tree for that very reason, they would be the first places that Jake would check. However when I came across _this_ tree, I knew it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

When looking at the thing from a distance, it looked impossible to climb, its outer branches just twigs that extended out into a thick cover of leaves, I myself had been fooled by this until I passed by the base of the trunk. I had looked up and seen a singular branch that would be large enough to support my weight hidden amongst the foliage.

I had swung myself up, silently cheering when I found that the branch didn't snap and then edged my way out as far I believed the branch could reasonably hold me. There was no way Jake would find me up here unless he walked right up to the base of the trunk and then shined the torch up among the branches.

I shifted my legs a bit, trying to give myself a more comfortable position while making as little noise as possible. I knew that the sounds of the wind rustling the leaves would mask any minor movements, but I wanted to be safe anyways- I just had this weird feeling that someone was close and that even if I breathed too loudly, they would know exactly where I was. Damn, I was paranoid sometimes.

I wondered where everyone else was, Beemo probably wasn't in a tree- he was a bit short to reach the branches. I internally laughed as I pictured the little dude jumping up and down, trying to reach a branch way overhead. In all honesty he was the one that I picked to be found first, he was barely even paying attention when the rules were read out and I figured he'd get scared and surrender.

Then there was Rainy, who I didn't actually know very well- she seemed rather excited to play, but I reasoned that she might give herself away to help Jake, who was no doubt scared out of his wits as he walked around the dark forest, probably jumping at the slightest sound.

Marceline was definitely bringing her A game, there was no way she would let me win that bet without putting up a decent fight- in fact, I was pretty sure she would be giving everything whether or not we made the bet. She just seemed to like winning a lot.

Suddenly I felt guilt build up in my stomach as I remembered Phoebe. She hadn't looked like the happiest girl in the world when I had let Marceline influence me into voting that we play the game- but if it was just that I had done then it would have been easily fixable. But then I had practically ignored her…

Damn it! I had gotten so caught up with my competitive spirit and wanting to challenge Marceline that I had pretty much forgotten about everyone else. I would need to make sure I apologised to Phoebe for my being an ass. I just hoped things wouldn't become awkward again, we had gotten so much closer over the past few days.

"Boo."

I almost fell off the branch as I felt the hand grab my shoulder. I span around in a whirlwind, barely containing my yelp of surprise as I moved. Without even thinking I swung out at the person who had intruded on my hiding place, feeling my arm vibrate as my fist made contact with their shoulder.

"Well that was rude." Marceline smiled, removing my fist from where it still contacted her skin. "First you steal my hiding place and then you assault me… I might have to kick you out of this tree."

"What!?" I yelled, quickly remembering that we were supposed to be hiding, "I was clearly up here first." I continued in a harsh whisper.

Marceline moved her foot backwards and revealed an 'M' that had been carved into the branch that we were both perched on. "See? M for Marceline, this is my spot."

How she had managed to sneak up behind me and carve and M into the tree was beyond me, but I could see that there was no way I was gonna get her out of the tree without physically pushing her- and I had a fairly strong feeling that a fight would not end well for me.

"I guess we'll just have to share then." I said plainly.

"Hm." Marceline put a hand to her chin in mock thought, "I suppose that would be alright, although I would have to contact my landlord, and there's the rent of course…"

"Shut up." I laughed, playfully punching her again, "If we keep talking someone is bound to find us."

"Nah, they're probably all way too far away to hear something _that_ quiet." She replied, "But…"

"What do you mean _but_?" I asked, worry building up in my chest as I saw Marceline's devilish grin form on her pale face.

"But this will be loud enough."

I had no time to react before Marceline yelled at the top of her lungs, "Come, one and all to witness the wonderful! Amazing! Fiiiiiiiiin Mert-"

I leapt forward, covering Marceline's mouth with my hand in an effort to stop her shouting, but I moved a bit too fast, taking the raven haired girl by surprise and sending us both tumbling out of the tree and falling to the ground with a thump.

"A-are you alright?" I asked hastily, staring into Marcy's dark eyes. I had never noticed that they were like that before- they didn't seem to have Irises, just overly large pupils.

"I-I think so." Marceline replied. Wait… did she just stutter? Never in the short amount of time that I had known the bassist had I ever heard her stutter. "But you're kinda, you know, on top of me."

"Oh shit." I cursed, quickly rolling to the side and onto the grass next to her. "Uh, sorry." I quickly added.

Marceline just gave a rather shallow laugh, a lot more forced than what I was used to hearing from her. "I'll be fine."

"That's good." I said dumbly, internally calling myself an idiot for saying something so awkwardly pointless.

I looked over to where Marcy sat, trying to think of something to say that would lessen the weirdness of the situation. Not managing to come up with anything, I just continued to stare at her thin frame in an awkward silence.

Her hair covered most of her face, falling down her shoulders and back like some waterfall of shadows. It was a lot tamer than Phoebe's fiery curls, almost completely straight despite the fact that she had fallen out of a tree.

"Over here, dummy!" I heard the voice of Rainy call from a surprisingly close distance, shattering the quiet that had fallen over Marceline and I.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Jake sighed, seemingly exhausted from running.

"Can't you go any faster?" I felt another twinge of guilt as I heard Phoebe.

"Running's hard." He complained, he was getting closer. "It's like some kind of fancy leg magic."

I couldn't help but laugh out loud at that, my step-brother was one of the strangest people I had ever met.

"It looks like we've been caught, Finny." Marceline said plainly, not bothering to get up from where she was seated on the forest floor. It was strange, I honestly expected her to get up and sprint off as soon as she heard Jake approaching… but she just sat there.

"I guess we have." I replied, trying to hide the confusion in my tone as our backs were both hit by the light from my step-brother's torch.

"Spotlight!" He called

* * *

We arrived back at the beach shortly afterward, nobody really saying anything. Marceline and I had both agreed that our bet had ended in a draw- which was also rather strange as I expected Marceline to insist that I had been found first. I honestly didn't believe her pride would allow her to just be content with a draw.

But ignoring her sudden burst of humbleness, there was something else that I felt was rather off… not specifically to do with Marceline, or Phoebe, or Jake, or Rainy…

"Oh shit!" I exclaimed, startling everyone around me. "We forgot Beemo."

"Oh glob." Jake's face suddenly paled, "I knew this was a bad idea, I told you it was a bad idea- if anyone of your parents find out that I lost a kid…"

Suddenly Beemo emerged from beneath one of the unmade tents, oversized camera in hand. "Oh, where were you guys?" He asked, still checking his camera. When he looked up at our astonished faces he went a bit red and nervously pushed his blue hair to the side. "What?" He added, "I was just under there to edit these photos." He explained, quite confused at our disbelief.

"You won." Jake said, still at a loss for words.

"I won what?" Beemo replied innocently.

The little bastard had won the whole game without even knowing that he was playing.

* * *

 ***Gasp* Plot twist!**

 **So this was a more exciting chapter compared to the last few- well, at least I thought so anyway. We had an almost-argument between Phoebe and Finn, thanks to the human boy's rivalry with Marcy... and speaking of Marcy, there was a bit of an awkward moment there- that's always fun to write, and then we had the underdog victory from Beemo in spotlight. Cool stuff.**

 **I hope you guys all enjoyed this chapter, but if you didn't, or just want to praise my excellent writing (I can dream too!), make sure to leave a review so I know what I'm doing well- and more importantly what I can improve on. As always-**

 **Thanks for reading! ~LivingTorch**


	15. Fighting Fear

Bloodstream

* * *

Chapter Fourteen: Fighting Fear

My stomach threatened to eject the morning's breakfast as I warily eyed the ocean. The surging waves seemed to be threatening me as they threw themselves onto the beach- getting closer and closer with each crash. I didn't know what was wrong with me.

I had never had a problem with the water before- admittedly, it had been a long time since I had visited the beach, but I was fine with lakes, rivers and streams, so why was the ocean any different? There was just something… off about the way the waves seemed to hungrily inch their way up the shoreline, devouring sand and shells and submerging rocks as they went. It was like some huge and unstoppable beast, swallowing everything in its path.

Jake and Rainy had already taken to the surf, ducking beneath the sweeping waves as they splashed each other with the frothy water. I shivered as I realised just how much the foaming sea spray looked like Saliva. Feeling sick, I averted my gaze from the ocean and stared at the sleeping form of Marceline- how could she have remained unconscious through all the noise that Jake had made when cooking breakfast? That girl never failed to surprise me.

"Are you alright, Finn?"

I jumped a bit as Phoebe sat next to me. She was wearing a two-piece swimsuit that matched the fiery colour of her hair, something that would have put me at a lost for words were the roars of the waves not constantly reminding me of the ocean's presence.

"I'm fine." I lied rather calmly, much to my own surprise. "I just think I ate a bit too many of those bacon pancakes- gotta let my stomach settle, ya know?"

Phoebe giggled a bit, a sound that managed to take my mind off of the raging sea for a moment. I turned my head to look towards her, remembering the events of the night before- but trying to block out the 'incident' with Marceline.

"I'm sorry about… you know, last night." I said, my usual awkwardness beginning to return to my voice.

"Huh?" Phoebe raised an eyebrow in confusion, although whether she actually didn't know what I was talking about or she just wanted to make it seem like I hadn't affected her was unclear.

"You know, when we were voting for Spotlight and I acted like a bit of a twat." I explained further.

"Oh, that." Phoebe moved her hand so that her fingertips were brushing against mine. "It doesn't matter, I know that you just wanted to beat Marceline, you two are always really competitive."

A widened my eyes, "So you're not mad?"

"Of course I'm not mad." Phoebe replied as if I had asked the dumbest question in the universe, "You just voted to play a game, I'm not gonna hold that against you." She suddenly grabbed my hand and stood up, pulling me onto my feet alongside her. "Now come on, let's go swim."

I felt my stomach lurch again at the mention of swimming.

"Uh, about that…" I turned my face away from Phoebe in an attempt to hide my embarrassment. My mind raced to find some excuse to get me out of having to swim.

"What is it, Finn?" Phoebe asked, a mixture of concern and curiosity seeping into her voice.

"Well, I… I don't really know how to put this…" I said slowly. Could I tell her I had some kind of anti-salt affliction? No- Jake knew that I was perfectly healthy. There had to be some way that I could avoid telling Phoebe…

"Finn…" Phoebe said, a grin starting to form on her face, "Are you… afraid of the ocean?"

"No!" I yelled defensively, trying to ignore the fiery haired girl's playful stare.

"Then you wouldn't mind going for a swim with me then, would you?" She asked slyly, pulling me along by my hand towards the torrent of water that was crashing into the beach.

"N-not at all." I stuttered. I could do this, it would just be a quick swim, just in and out- there was nothing that the ocean could do to hurt me, it was just water… surging, terrifying, crashing water…

"Alright!" I yelled suddenly halting. "I'm afraid of the ocean!"

"Oh, that's impossible!" Phoebe said in mock surprise, "The great and brave Finn, afraid of mere water!"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up." I harshly whispered, trying desperately to silence Phoebe's shouts. I couldn't let anyone else know about this… and I _definitely_ could not let Marceline know about this.

"Alright, I'll be quiet." Phoebe relented, "But… you're going to have to do something for me first."

"Anything." I said, desperate to silence her mocking.

"You're going to let me help you get over your fear."

* * *

Oh Glob, oh Glob, oh Glob, oh Glob, oh Glob.

I was shivering with a lot more than just cold as I watched the foamy water crawl up towards my exposed toes. I fought the urge to run back up the beach as each wave assaulted the shoreline, 'It can't hurt me.' I told myself over and over again, 'It's just regular water- only slightly saltier.' For some reason my self-reassurances didn't seem to be doing anything to ease my fear.

"I still can't believe that you're afraid of the ocean." Phoebe giggled from my left, she had led me to an area some way down the beach, this way no one else would know the embarrassing details of what I was trying to accomplish.

"Aren't you supposed to be helping me?" I complained, "Besides, plenty of people are afraid of the ocean- it's actually quite scary."

"Oh really?" Phoebe asked, raising an eyebrow. "Because I don't know one other person that refuses to step foot in the waves."

"Well… That's probably just because our school is rather in land, so you don't see many people at the beach." I reasoned, stating what I believed to be rather logical rebuttal.

"Yeah whatever." Phoebe dismissed my words and set her gaze onto the rolling mass of water. "Now let's begin step one of my plan."

"A-already?" I stammered, feeling my knees grow rather weak as I suddenly didn't feel so sure about whether or not I wanted to do this.

"Yes, already." Phoebe said firmly, "Now we're going to start small- so just wait here."

I stood in place as Phoebe jogged off, closing my eyes and trying to block out the sounds of sea's endless roaring. It was fine before I had woken up- probably because it was dark and I hadn't seen the beast of water just yet… but now… it unleashed itself before me in all it's ferocious glory.

I felt a tapping on my shoulder as Phoebe returned. She was carrying a rather large bucket with her, filled with with what appeared to be salt water. I instinctively recoiled at first, but on closer inspection I realised that the liquid wasn't so bad when it wasn't tumbling around and smashing into things.

"What's that for?" I asked, eyeing the bucket up, curiously.

"Touch it." Phoebe said simply, at first I thought this was another attempt to mock me, but the look in her eyes was dead serious.

I bent my knees, stretching an arm towards the sandy fluid, submerging a finger- and then my entire hand without complaint. This was rather easy, at this rate I would be getting over this stupid fear in no time!

Suddenly Phoebe reached for the bucket and tipped out its entire contents over my head. It was cold, the water cascading down my face into my gaping my mouth, the salty taste going rife across my tongue.

"What the hell was that for!?" I yelled, rather annoyed.

"So you weren't afraid of that, right?" Phoebe asked, seemingly ignoring my previous question.

"No, of course not!" I retorted, wondering how dumping a bucket of seawater onto my head was supposed to help at all.

"So then why are you so afraid of the waves?" She stared back at me, "They give you the exact same feeling the bucket gave you- that's not so bad, right?"

Well that didn't make any sense at all- the waves were so much bigger… But even so, as I turned around and faced the ocean I realised that the sick-to-the-stomach feeling I had received before was lessening now. Huh, I guess experiencing something like this first hand was the best way to deal with it- the waves wouldn't hurt me, they would just be a bit chilly and put a salty taste in my mouth.

"Y-you're right." I admitted, my stammering showing that I hadn't been one hundred percent successful at suppressing my fear- but still, it was progress.

"So you're ready to try and touch the real thing now?" She asked me, eyes staring expectantly.

"I think so…" I replied.

I stood still for a few more moments, until I realised that Phoebe wanted me to go and get my feet wet now. I was about to ask if we really had to do this now, but she just gave me a look that said 'stop being such a wimp', it kinda reminded me of Marceline.

Summoning up all the courage I possessed, I turned and faced the ocean. I tried to keep my vision on the shallows, blocking out the monstrous waves that terrorized the edges of my vision. 'You can do this.' I thought to myself, 'It's just like the bucket- only a bit larger.'

I took a step closer to the foamy residue that was left behind by a previous wave. The sand making thick, sucking sounds as I moved my feet closer to the ocean. I saw a small surge of water coming towards me, just the last few seconds of a collapsed waves short life. It would be easy, the water would come past, envelope my ankles and then be gone as quickly as it came.

Despite all my preparation, the moment the water made contact with my skin I made a very un-manly scream and dashed behind Phoebe, using her as a shield against the onslaught of water.

She just giggled, a sound that made my emotions so conflicted. On the one hand I was pissed that she was laughing at me- but on the other hand I didn't care because I knew that I was the one making her laugh… and for some reason that made everything better- knowing that I was the cause of that heavenly sound.

"That was like, not even above your ankles." She smiled, barely containing an outburst of laughter.

"I tried okay!" I protested, unable to stop myself from grinning along with Phoebe. "Maybe you're just not a very good teacher!"

"Pfft." She scoffed, "I've just never dealt with someone as afraid of something as you are." She let out another giggle, a sound that made my heart flutter like a butterfly caught in a breeze.

"I'm not _that_ bad." I said, moving a bit closer to her. "I do feel like we made a bit of progress though."

"I suppose so." Phoebe replied, we were now just inches apart. "If you count dipping your hand in a bucket progress."

"It was close enough." I leaned in to kiss Phoebe, my eyes beginning to close as I knew she was replicating my action. It wasn't exactly the romantic sunset moment I had pictured, but now that I was in the moment, I honestly didn't care… that is until Marceline showed up.

"So Finn's afraid of the ocean!" She announced loudly, taking both Phoebe and I by complete surprise.

"Marcy!" I exclaimed, almost headbutting Phoebe in fright, "What the hell?!"

"Gah!" Phoebe yelled, turning a fiery gaze towards Marceline, "What in the name of Glob are you doing here!? And do you not understand how to read a fucking situation!?"

Phoebe was hot when she was angry.

"You were teaching Finny here to stop being such a wiener, right?" She asked, looking between us. I could practically feel my face burning like a tomato in embarrassment. "Well I'm here to help."

"No one asked for you to help!" Phoebe yelled, she looked just about ready to punch Marceline. Damn, I didn't know that this girl had such a temper- not that I minded it though, I was pissed at Marceline too- just not in a shouty kinda way, more in a 'let's talk about this later' kinda way. Wait… didn't Marceline just say that she knew about my being afraid of the ocean?

Suddenly the weight of what had just been revealed hit me… I was never going to be able to live this down.

Marceline looked Phoebe up and down, a rather cocky grin spread across her face. "You know what, you're right- no one did ask for my help." She said simply, "But that's just classic me, isn't it- lending a hand without being prompted, helping a damsel in distress without a call for aid." She directed the damsel in distress part at me, making me blush even further. Why did she have to find out?

"Alright, so what's your big plan?" Phoebe glared at Marceline, clearly these two had some sort of history too, or maybe Phoebe had just inherited her dislike from Bonnie… I wasn't too sure.

"Well that's easy." Marceline tilted her head and let out a sly smile. " _This_ is my big plan."

Suddenly she leapt toward me, hefting me over her shoulder as I was caught off guard by her tremendous speed, it was almost inhuman the way she carried me like I was a ragdoll… but that wasn't the part that scared me- it was the fact that Marceline was headed straight for the ocean that caused me to scream.

"Put me down!" I yelled, banging my fists against Marceline's back. "Put me down! Put me down! Put me down!"

It was no use. In no time at all we had reached the wall of waves.

"Alright Finny, brace for impact." She warned and I barely had time to flinch before she tossed me into the surging beast of the ocean.

I lost all sense of direction as a wave passed over me, throwing me around with ten times the strength of Marceline. I was like a speck of dust caught in a tornado- the pure power and size of the ocean making it impossible for me to resist… but for some reason, rather than feeling fear as I had anticipated, I instead felt a sense of… well I didn't really know what to call it.

The way I had no time to plan a reaction and just relied on instinct to keep myself from being pummeled into the seabed made me feel as if I were in the heat of combat. It was like trying to fence against Marceline when she had first offered to train me- I knew it was impossible to beat her but I kept at it anyways- because it was fun… I savoured the challenge of a difficult opponent and you didn't get much more difficult than the ocean.

As I finally surfaced I heard Phoebe yelling at Marceline to my right.

"-have any idea what you've done!?" She yelled, "He'll probably never want to go near a body of water ever again after this!"

"Uh, actually." I cut in. "I think it worked."

Phoebe turned and just gave me a blank stare. I did not have a single clue as to what she was thinking, but I instantly regretted opening my mouth.

"See, told you I'm a genius." Marceline taunted, keeping up her cocky grin through the whole conversation.

"Gah!" Phoebe yelled in annoyance. "I just wish Bonnie had been able to come, then Finn wouldn't have been able to give _you_ that glob damn ticket!"

Suddenly Marceline's cocky smile faded. "Wait, what?" She asked, "Finn said that he never invited Bonnie." She looked toward me for support, her eyes wanting me to tell her that she was right… but I just stood, frozen in place.

Phoebe gave Marceline a confused look, "But I was there when he invited her- oh." She cut herself off too late as she realised that I had been trying to mask that fact. "Shit."

Marceline stared at me, I expected her to be pissed, to come at me with fists raised, but instead she did something much worse. She turned around and ran.

* * *

 **Holy crabapples that was longer than I expected- also sorry for being a bit slower with this update, school started back up on Monday and I had a bunch of tests I had 'forgotten' to study for. So yeah, expect to see an update every 2-4 days from here on out, on weekends I might be a bit more frequent. Anyways,**

 **Thanks for Reading! ~LivingTorch**


	16. A Storm on the Horizon

**Bloodstream**

 **Chapter Fifteen : A Storm on the Horizon**

* * *

The walk to school seemed much longer on the day following the camping trip, probably because every fiber in my being was telling me to avoid it, to avoid facing all of _them_. No, I would press on. I needed to fix this. I needed to make right, all that had gone so terribly wrong.

What in the name of Glob was I supposed to do?

Everything had been going so perfectly. Not only had I managed to keep myself out of any major trouble over the last few weeks, but I had also made friends- _good_ friends. Bonnie had practically taken me under her wing from day one, if it wasn't for her I wouldn't have even met Phoebe...

Oh Phoebe. Just thinking the name brought forth a a double-edged blade of emotions; one of the sides bright with feelings of comfort and happiness and... something else that I couldn't even begin to describe, but the other side had been sharpened to a wicked point with the fires of anger. I knew that being angry at Phoebe wasn't fair. I was the one who had lied. I was the one who had forgotten...

Marceline...

There was no blade when I thought about her, no torrent of multicolored feelings, just... black. I could fix any divide with Beemo, and given some time I could fix what had happened with Phoebe, even if I could never bring myself to forgive her for unchaining the secret, but Marceline. Something deep within my very core told me that trying to fix the ravine that had just opened between us would be like trying to stop the Titanic from sinking with a roll of duct tape and a pot of glue.

There was a dark pit in the past of the group I had been welcomed so easily into. A dark pit that would continue to keep Phoebe and Bonnie divided from Marceline. A dark pit that would force me to choose a side for fall, kicking and screaming into its evil black.

I had to find out what had happened. That was the only way I could fix this.

But how?

The train ride home had been inflicted even more fear in my heart than the ocean. Marceline had almost missed it, showing up at the last moment and distancing herself from the rest of us. I had tried to find a seat next to her, to try and explain myself, but she had vanished in the crowed, leaving me to sit on my own til we arrived back in Ooo.

I had tried again to catch up with her. I so desperately wanted to make things right, to cling to the quickly unraveling rope of our once tightly bound friendship, but again- it was as if she had turned completely invisible. For all I knew, she might have gotten off at a completely different stop.

I eventually reunited with Jake, who informed me that Phoebe and Beemo had already left the station. I could tell he knew something was up, he did the whole obligatory "hey man, are you okay?" routine, but I never gave any details. He seemed to back off about it pretty fast and tried to lighten the mood with promises of bacon pancakes once we had returned home. I appreciated that.

With a start, I realized it had begun to rain. The icy droplets pelting my bear-hat, as if scolding me, as if reminding me that I was mere steps away from repeating what had happened in the past.

I removed the hat, shoving it into my backpack in order to stop it from getting drenched. I felt naked without it on, exposed to the harsh realities of the world, but I refused to use it as a shield from the elements. I simply raised my shoulders against the onslaught, allowing my long locks of hair to shield my eyes.

I had to talk to Phoebe... or even Bonnie, I needed to find out what the fuck was going on. I needed to find out why it had broken Marceline so much to hear that she was Bonnie's replacement. I had expected her to be pissed off, to shove me back into the churning ocean, but that crestfallen look of betrayal she had laid on me... there was more too this than I could even begin to understand. I needed to understand if I was ever going to fix this.

 _I could fix this._

I tried pushing the thought to the back of my mind, but my resolve was weaker now- the dark whispering persisted.

 _It wouldn't be hard to find me, you know. Ol' Dan would certainly cut you a deal, it's not like you can't afford it with all the cash he's been giving you._

"Shut up," I hissed under my breath.

 _Oh, come on, Finny, I've known you far longer than anyone else in this shitty town. I know you far better too._

"Don't call me that." I was louder that time, if anyone had been walking by they would have definitely heard my deranged mutterings, oblivious to the internal conflict that I was fighting.

 _Finny, you aren't going to see her again. She doesn't get you, not like I do._

I broke out into a run.

It was the only thing I could think of doing. I focused on the chilling kiss of raindrops slashing at my bare skin, moving one foot in front of the other as fast as my frost-numbed body would allow. I couldn't afford a confrontation with _it_ right now, I knew _it_ would win. So I kept running, praying to Glob that if I ran fast enough I would escape _its_ wicked clutches.

"Fuck you," I cursed, carving my way through the rain with an animal's fury, "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!"

All I had to do was run. It was all I could do, but I knew it would be enough.

As if on queue, the rain drizzled to a stop, leaving behind the warm smell of damp pavement. However, the sky remained dark- and ever threatening.

* * *

Moments later I arrived at the school, hat repositioned atop my head once more. I made a beeline for the front gates, leaning up against a nearby tree and beginning to scan the slow trickle of reluctant students pour into the courtyard.

I had arrived early, as usual, and there were just shy of fifteen minutes till students would be called into classrooms. If I was lucky, Phoebe wouldn't have arrived yet, and with a bit of expert recon from my young eyes I'd be able to pick her fiery, red hair out from amongst the crowed.

Sure enough, she arrived a moment later, eyes cast toward the ground as she trudged along the pavement. I immediately began to plot a course through the oncoming students, attempting to suppress the nervous thoughts that were racing around in my head. I would fix this. I would find out what the hell was going on and then I would fix this.

When I was within ten feet of her she noticed me, her eyes moving up to meet mine for a moment before immediately darting away. For a moment I thought she was going to just ignore me and walk right on by, but as she drew closer she stopped.

"I'm sorry," she said simply, still refusing to meet my gaze, "I didn't know you hadn't told her."

"I know." I wanted to try and comfort her, to reach out and lay a hand on her arm, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. "I'm sorry too," I said instead.

"If this is about you trying to find Marceline on the train-" she began, before I cut in.

"No, not just that. I mean the whole spotlight thing and when I let her interrupt us on the beach..." I paused, the memory of Marceline and I tumbling out of the tree into an accidental embrace flashing through my mind. "I'm sorry."

"I told you that I didn't care about that, Finn," Phoebe replied, although this time her voice wavered, "I just want us to go back to the way things were before the trip. I really hope that this whole thing doesn't ruin what we have."

"We can't just go back," I said forcefully, regretting my words as I saw Phoebe flinch, "Not until you guys actually tell me what's going on."

"Finn, I don't think that-"

"I won't let myself be an outsider anymore." I struggled to maintain the strength in my words now. "I want to fix everything Phoebe, not just what happened between you and me and Marceline at the beach. I don't just want to be able to talk to Marcy like before the trip, I want Bonnie and her to get along again."

"That's a lost cause," Phoebe stated, real emotion seemed to be edging through into her voice now, "Believe me, there's no way Bonnie will ever forgive that delinquent after what she did to her... to us."

"I can't," I said firmly.

"You can't what?"

"I can't believe you, not unless you can explain to me why the hell I should."

Phoebe stared at the ground for a few seconds, and I watched her in silence as she seemed to mentally debate how much she wanted to reveal. Eventually, she lifted her face, brushing a lock of hair away from her face and staring at me directly for the first time since we started talking.

"Do you like her?"

Her eyes seemed to burn into my very being as she asked the question, which completely took me by surprise.

"W-what?" I managed to stammer out.

"Do you like her?" she repeated, not shifting her gaze for a moment.

I nervously tugged at shirt, not fully understanding the connotations of the question, "Do you mean like as in like... or as in _like_?"

She didn't give me an answer, instead keeping her eyes on mine, she seemed to be trying to force some answer out of me through sheer will.

"Well, I... uh, I like her," I began, barely stringing the sentences together, "But I don't-"

"Then I'm sorry, but I can't tell you," she said matter-of-factly, her eyes losing some of the emotion from before, "I won't try to influence your decision on who you should and shouldn't like. I believe that people have the power to change, but I also know that sometimes past events are just too terrible to forget, even with change."

"Phoebe-"

"All I'm going to say is, I don't think she's the best person to hang out with," Phoebe cut in, "Whether you take that advice or not is solely up to you."

With that she turned on her heel and moved off into the school. However, just as she was about to disappear from view, she turned to face me again.

"If you really want to know what happened, try asking Marceline herself, but just be aware that you probably won't like the answer."

And with that, Phoebe was gone.

* * *

I hadn't bothered to sit with Phoebe, Bonnie and Beemo at lunch, I didn't want to have to deal with all the awkwardness that would bring, especially taking into account the fact that Bonnie might not even have known what transpired between us at the beach yet.

Instead I attempted to track down Marceline, but she had either found an incredibly good hiding spot or she hadn't come into school that day. I really hoped it wasn't the latter, but something told me that not even Marceline was this good at avoiding me.

So, I ended up walking home with more questions than answers. In fact, I had acquired almost zero information beyond the usual crap that they feed me every time I bring up the root cause of the conflict between Marceline and Bonnie. Phoebe had been less than helpful with her speech about personal biases, I wasn't going to be able to be friends with Marceline at all if I couldn't figure out why coming second to Bonnie had destroyed her so much.

 _"Do you like her?"_

The question sprung forward in my mind again, the intense gaze of Phoebe coming with it. Yes was the obvious answer of course, I really did like Marceline, she had been my closest friend since I had arrived here at Ooo and I felt more comfortable around her than I did even Jake... or Phoebe. She just seemed to get me, to know what I found fun and what I was thinking before I had even known her for a day.

But then there was the second meaning to the question, the one with more- _dangerous_ overtones. I didn't know if that was what Phoebe had intended at all, but it sure felt like it at the time.

I like-liked Phoebe, that much I was sure of. So if I like-liked Phoebe then shouldn't that mean that I only regular like Marceline? That's how it works, right? I mean, I never become a nervous, stuttering mess around her like I did with Phoebe, and I never found myself lost studying the details of her face like I still do with Phoebe. It was just... when she had taught me how to fence I had felt some sort of connection. When she threw me into the sea I had even felt something, this understanding between us, she knew what the easiest solution to my problem was and she did it.

And when we fell from the tree... there was definitely something there. Although whether it was like-likiness or just regular likiness still eluded me. So could I reasonably say I didn't like-like her? I wasn't sure about that either.

I like-liked Phoebe, that was all I knew at the moment. So I attempted to shove any thoughts of romantic feelings toward Marceline into a dark and forgotten corner of my mind. I only needed to focus on repairing our friendship, I'd sort that out later.

* * *

A moment later I had stepped in through the front door of Jake's house, dumping my bag before making my way to the living room. I noticed Jake sitting on the couch, looking very nervous.

"Jake, what's wrong dude?" I asked, grabbing an apple from the basket on the coffee table.

"Ah, you must be Finn."

I whirled around as the voice sounded from behind me. I noticed a thin man sitting on a chair next to the doorway I had just come through. He was dressed in an expensive looking suit, sporting a crimson tie that stuck out from his crisp, white shirt. He was dreadfully pale, as if he spent all his time working away in some corporate office, never daring to step a foot outside, but it was his eyes that were most disconcerting. They were grey and seemingly devoid of any emotion except a wicked spark, as if this man took great joy out of the knowledge that he scared the shit out of every person in any room he entered. Finn included.

"You're step-brother's been telling me all about you," he began, his voice very even but conveying a sense of light malice, as if each word were a carefully selected poison. "He says you've acquired some part-time employment, that you're household now possesses enough income to bring a stop to all these late payments."

I realized with a start that this was Jake's landlord.

The landlord surveyed me once again before speaking once more, "May I ask if this is true?"

"Yes," I said instantly, "There won't be any more late payments, I promise."

"Mmhmm." His eyes shifted toward Jake now, and I could have sworn I felt an immense pressure being lifted from my shoulders. "You said he works delivery for some of the main street businesses?"

Jake simply nodded his head.

"Interesting," the Landlord continued without missing a beat, he then turned back toward me and I felt my breath catch in the back of my throat, "You know I own a small club on that street, never seen you make a delivery before- and I make sure to learn all my employers names."

Shit.

"I, uh, only deliver to a few stores," I spat out, thinking fast.

"Really?" He raised an eyebrow, "May I ask which?"

"Death's burgers is one," I said the first store that came to mind, "The pizza place too," I added, praying to Glob that there was a pizza place.

"Ol' Death hired you? He's a close friend of mine," he smiled as he said that and somehow I just knew that he hadn't bought any of what I had said, but for whatever reason didn't spill any of it. "I may have to talk to him about changing your employment, you seem the reliable sort- helping out your brother and all, this town needs more good people like you, my business needs more good people like you."

"Uh, thankyou sir." I cringed as I felt a bead of sweat drip down my forehead.

"Hm, polite too." He laughed, a full and rich sound that made me want to sprint right out of the room, "Anyway, it seems that all is in order here, I'll be off now."

He gathered his things and walked towards the exit, however just as he placed a hand on the door he turned toward me, "Oh where are my manners, I haven't even told you my name!" He walked toward me extending a hand out, "You can call me Mister A," he said, shaking my hand firmly, "and I'm sure we are going to get a whole lot better aquainted."

With that, he walked out the door and beneath the grey of the clouds, which had just begun to unleash another torrent of rain.


End file.
